Made in Italy - Street Food and Cover Band

An Italian evening in Piazza Dante

Made in Italy - Street Food and Cover Band is the summer evening that brings Piazza Dante to life, the open-air living room of Marano Equo, a small town in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, in the Lazio region. The formula is the simple, time-tested one of the village festivals of the Aniene Valley: arrive in the late afternoon, have dinner in the square with street food, and stay until nightfall for the concert. No tickets, no reservations: just show up and enjoy.

Street food, from sunset onwards

The gastronomic heart of the evening is entrusted to the traveling stand Mordi e Fuggi Mauretto, which opens its doors around 6:00 PM and remains operational all evening. The offering is proudly popular and Roman, without gourmet pretensions but with generous portions and festival-style prices:

• Porchetta di Ariccia, one of the iconic products of the Castelli Romani, served in a sandwich
• Supplì in various versions, the essential street food of the capital
• Fried tripe and French fries
• Pizzas, sandwiches, mortadella, and freshly sliced cold cuts

It is the kind of food you eat standing up, glass in hand, chatting with your table neighbors: an integral part of the experience, just as much as the music.

The concert: 883, Vasco Rossi, and Cesare Cremonini

Around 9:30 PM, the stage takes center stage. The Made in Italy show that gives the evening its name is a live medley of hits from three names that have defined three different eras of Italian pop music: the 883 of the nineties, the rock songwriting of Vasco Rossi, and the more recent pop of Cesare Cremonini. Not a monographic tribute band, then, but a cross-sectional journey through songs that the audience knows by heart and sings at the top of their lungs, with a repertoire capable of bringing multiple generations together in the same square.

Marano Equo, the village of waters

Marano Equo is located at an altitude of about 450 meters, some forty kilometers east of Rome, along the Aniene Valley and at the gates of the Subiaco area. The town is known above all for its mineral water springs, which have shaped its economy and identity, and for a compact historic center made of uphill alleys and glimpses of the valley. With just over eight hundred inhabitants, it is one of those villages that doubles its population in the summer with the return of vacationers: the evenings in the square in August are the main moment of collective social life.

Why it's worth the trip

Those looking for a major music festival won't find it here: Made in Italy is a village evening, with all the good that implies. It is free, takes place entirely outdoors in a human-scale square, works well for families with children, and allows you to discover a corner of Lazio that classic tourist circuits skip. It can easily become the perfect end to a day spent between Subiaco, the Benedictine monasteries of San Benedetto and Santa Scolastica, and the trails of the Monti Simbruini Regional Natural Park.

Good to know

As this is a small-scale summer event, the program is usually released a few weeks in advance through the channels of the Municipality of Marano Equo and the local press of the Aniene Valley. Before setting off, it is always advisable to check the date and times, which may be subject to changes due to weather or organizational reasons.