San Cesareo Grape and Local Products Festival

A celebration of the harvest for over half a century

The San Cesareo Grape and Local Products Festival is one of the longest-running and most cherished events in the area southeast of Rome. Established in the early 1970s, it reached its 55th edition in September 2025. For three days, typically during the last weekend of September, the town gathers around Piazza Giulio Cesare to bid farewell to summer and celebrate the harvest, in a region where grape cultivation has defined the daily lives of families for generations.

Allegorical floats and grape stomping

The heart of the event is the parade of allegorical floats decorated with grape clusters, prepared by local associations and neighborhood committees. The festival's most iconic moments revolve around these floats: the traditional grape stomping in the square to the sound of accordions, the historical pageant, and the popular games organized by the Magistrato del Palio di Sant'Agapito, along with performances by flag-wavers and folk groups. It is a collective festival, built from the ground up, where every association in San Cesareo makes its own contribution.

The flavors of the Roman countryside

The food and wine stalls offer the most authentic repertoire of local cuisine: fettuccine al ragù, grilled lamb chops (abbacchio allo scottadito), porchetta, polenta with sausage, and the essential wine-infused donuts, all paired with local wines from the nearby Castelli Romani. Grapes are the star in all their forms, from table grapes—a historical agricultural vocation of San Cesareo—to the glass. On Sunday, the stalls open for lunch as well, turning the festival into one long village banquet.

Music, shows, and fireworks

Every evening, Piazza Giulio Cesare transforms into an open-air stage. Over the years, it has hosted pop and revival concerts, dance nights, children's shows, and cabaret. In the 2024 edition, the grand finale featured the Dik Dik, a historic Italian beat group, followed by a fireworks display that lit up the town's sky.

San Cesareo, between the Castelli Romani and the Prenestini Mountains

Promoted by the Municipality of San Cesareo in collaboration with the Pro Loco and local associations, the festival is also an opportunity to discover this young municipality in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, in the Lazio region, which grew along the Via Casilina halfway between the Castelli Romani and the Prenestini Mountains. It is a land of vineyards and Roman countryside where the grape festival, now over half a century old, remains the most anticipated event of the year: a weekend of tradition, rural memory, and conviviality that attracts visitors from Rome and all the surrounding towns.