Orte in Cantina

A village transformed into a cellar

Orte in Cantina is the benchmark food and wine event in the Tuscia region: two winter Sundays when the entire historic center of the Municipality of Orte, in the province of Viterbo, Lazio, becomes one large tasting circuit. Visitors don't sit at a table: they walk. They traverse alleys, small squares, courtyards, and, most importantly, the ancient cellars carved into the tuff beneath the village houses, reopened for the occasion by their owners and transformed into gastronomic stops.

How the tour works

At the entrance, each participant receives a wine glass holder, a tasting glass, and a badge with a map of the itinerary. Groups depart at staggered times, accompanied by a guide and sommeliers from the Italian Sommelier Association who present the paired wines. The stops follow one another without interruption, from appetizer to dessert: nine food and wine stations, each with a dish from the local Orte and Lazio tradition, served with a wine chosen for the pairing. The tour concludes in Piazza della Libertà, where groups are welcomed with mulled wine, roasted chestnuts, live music, and entertainment.

More than just wine

Alongside the tastings, the event offers a wide-ranging program that highlights local products and crafts:

• Extra virgin olive oil — local producers reconstruct an ancient olive mill in the city and press olives live, with guided tastings of new oil
• Craft and local product markets along the village streets
• Visits to historic cellars and the monumental sights of the medieval center
• Live music and street performances in the squares, particularly at the final stop

A history spanning nearly twenty years

The event was born in the autumn of 2007 from an idea linked to the recovery of the village's private cellars, many of which had remained closed for decades. Since then, Orte in Cantina has grown to become one of the most established and anticipated events in Tuscia, capable of attracting visitors from Rome, Umbria, and all over Lazio. The 2025 edition, the seventeenth, took place on Sunday, November 30, and Sunday, December 7. The event is organized by the The Grove Cultural Association, in collaboration with the Pro Loco of Orte, the Municipality of Orte, and the Roman Sommelier Association.

Orte, a village to discover

Built on a tuff spur overlooking the Tiber Valley, Orte preserves a compact medieval historic center, made of narrow alleys, Romanesque churches, and a dense network of underground tunnels and cisterns from the Etruscan and Roman eras. Its location—just minutes from the motorway exit and on one of the most important railway junctions in central Italy—makes the village easily accessible, which largely explains the event's success. Participating in Orte in Cantina therefore means combining a tasting experience with a true tour of the town, with the cellars serving as a key to accessing a part of Orte that is normally invisible.

Why it's worth the trip

More than just a festival, Orte in Cantina is a carefully crafted experience: limited capacity, mandatory reservations, accompanied groups, and pairings curated by professionals. It is the perfect opportunity to sample the cuisine of Tuscia and the wines of northern Lazio in a single day, in a setting—the tuff cellars illuminated in November—that is hard to forget.