Montefortino Festival

The festival that brings the village of Montefortino back to life

Perched on the slopes of the Lepini Mountains in the Province of Rome, Artena is one of the most unique villages in Lazio: a completely pedestrian historic center, free of cars, made of steep alleys, stairways, and cellars carved into the rock. Until 1873, the town was called Montefortino, a name that still gives its most iconic festival its title today. Every year, during the first ten days of September, the Montefortino Festival restores its ancient soul to these spaces, transforming them for a few evenings into authentic, scattered taverns where locals offer wine, traditional products, and cheer.

A journey through cellars, flavors, and music

The heart of the event is a food and wine tour that winds through the historic center, guided and divided into stages. Visitors are provided with a glass for tastings and a brochure with a map of the itinerary, allowing them to traverse the village while sampling local dishes and products paired with the best wines of the Castelli Romani and Cesanese. The ancient tuff cellars, usually closed, are specially prepared and opened to the public, creating an itinerary that is both a tasting experience and a guided tour of the town's history.

Ballads, jazz, and singer-songwriter music

The festival's soundtrack blends genres and atmospheres: folk music and ballads, jazz, singer-songwriter tracks, and sounds from the European underground enliven the village squares—from Piazza Belvedere to the staircase and the square of Santa Croce—with concerts and acoustic readings that accompany the walk through the alleys. It is an evening festival, where the light of the cellars and live music give the historic center an atmosphere suspended in time.

The village of brigands

The festival's historical subtitle, "in the village of brigands", recalls the memory of Artena as a refuge for the outlaws who once infested the Sacco Valley: it was precisely to distance itself from that memory that the town abandoned the name Montefortino. Today, the festival reclaims that history in a convivial way, combining the appreciation of the bourgeois architectural heritage—the Arco Borghese, the Palazzo Borghese where Zeffirelli filmed the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet—with the pleasures of the table and music.

A late-summer appointment in Lazio

Reaching its twentieth edition in 2025, the Montefortino Festival is now a classic late-summer event for the Castelli Romani and Monti Prenestini areas, capable of attracting visitors from Rome and all over Lazio. Those who choose it find an authentic village, a quality winemaking tradition, and a cultural program that makes the historic center of Artena a natural stage.