Pontelandolfo Carnival - Cheese Rolling Tournament

The most unusual Carnival in the Sannio region

There are carnivals with floats and carnivals with masks. The one in Pontelandolfo, a village of just over two thousand inhabitants at 510 meters above sea level in the Alto Tammaro area, in the province of Benevento, is recognized by a sound: the heavy rolling of an aged cheese wheel racing down the street, pursued by cheering fans. It is the Cheese Rolling Tournament, one of the oldest and most defining traditional games of inland Campania, a ritual born as a challenge between shepherds that has never been interrupted.

How to play

The principle is simple, the execution much less so. Players are divided into teams—of two, four, or six—and must cover a pre-established route by throwing a wheel of cheese: the winner is the one who reaches the end with the fewest throws, not the one who throws it the furthest in a single shot. Precision, reading the slope, and the ability to use curbs and curves are what count. Strength alone has never been enough.

• La pezza 'r f'rmagg': the wheel of aged cheese, weighing between 5 and 18 kilos, which serves as both the game tool and the final prize.
• La 'nzavàglia: the double string wrapped around the wheel to give it rotation.
• R' spròccul': the small wooden cylinder used as a grip during the throw.
• Il 'nzavagliatòr: the person who prepares the wheel, wraps the string, and aims the shot.
• I vaccarèll': the supporters who follow the race step by step, encouraging the teams with the call « lelè… lelè… la pezza r' f'rmagg'… lelè… ».

The route: from Piazza Roma to San Rocco

The track crosses the town center: it starts from the Piazza Roma fountain, continues along Viale dell'Impero, and arrives at the corner of the San Rocco chapel. Then it turns back, as the challenge is played in two legs, out and back. For the occasion, the road becomes a racecourse and the houses lining it transform into a natural grandstand: it is one of the few events where the town center does not serve as a backdrop, but as the playing field.

A tradition from afar

The origins of the game are ancient: figures in a throwing position already appear in Etruscan paintings in Tarquinia, and the game appears in the texts of Galileo Galilei, in the Roman prints of Bartolomeo Pinelli, and in the verses of Giuseppe Gioachino Belli. In Pontelandolfo, the tradition is traced back to around 1300, when groups of families from the Ciociaria region settled here while fleeing a violent plague epidemic, bringing the shepherds' game with them.

Alongside history, there is the legend that everyone in the village knows: a baron allegedly lost two farms and a mountain of pasture in a card game against his laborer, Pasquale, and the two could no longer agree on who was entitled to the cheese produced. They decided that « what is born from the game should end in the game ». That match, it is said, has never been closed: it continues every year during the nights of Carnival.

When to play

The rolling season traditionally opens on January 17th, the feast of Saint Anthony Abbot, and continues on weekends until Carnival, when the actual tournament is concentrated. It is the moment when local champions face off in front of the whole village and, in the afternoon, the cheese wheels race through the streets one after another. Over the years, the event has been enriched with other Carnival appointments: theatrical performances, parades, masquerade dinners, and musical evenings hosted by local associations.

Not just a competition: the taste of Alto Tammaro

Cheese here is not just a folkloric pretext. The wheels used in the competition come from local dairy production, and tastings of typical products, stalls, and improvised tables along the route revolve around the tournament. Visitors can also try their hand at throwing, guided by the most experienced players: it is the best way to understand how difficult it is to make a ten-kilo wheel roll well.

Why it's worth the trip

Pontelandolfo is about thirty kilometers from Benevento and can be reached by car heading up towards the Matese mountains. The Cheese Rolling Carnival is the ideal opportunity to discover a corner of Campania rarely touched by mass tourism, where a community of two thousand people keeps alive a game that has disappeared elsewhere—and which has recently even crossed the ocean, proposed by the Pontelandolfo community that emigrated to Waterbury, in the United States.