San Martino Festival - Rituals, Food and Wine

An autumn festival in the heart of the Veio lands

The San Martino Festival - Rituals, Food and Wine is the most anticipated autumn event in Formello, a town in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, in northern Lazio. Every year, around mid-November, the medieval village transforms into a large open-air stage where new wine, the flavors of the Roman countryside, and folk traditions intertwine for two full days.

The event takes its name from the feast of Saint Martin on November 11th, the time when, according to the farming calendar, "every must becomes wine." This ancient agricultural deadline inspired the festival: opening cellars, tasting new wine, and rediscovering the crafts, stories, and recipes of a territory stretching between the Veio Park and the route of the Via Francigena.

The village becomes a town square

The heart of the festival is the historic center: Viale Umberto I and the municipal gardens host artisan and producer stalls, while the village streets welcome roaming performers, pageants, and live music. The 17th-century Palazzo Chigi, with its courtyard and the Sala Orsini, serves as the venue for traditional lunches and dinners, as well as meetings and conferences dedicated to the local area.

• Open cellars and tastings of new wine from local producers
• Craft markets featuring potters, weavers, and traditional workmanship
• Food and wine stalls serving rustic Lazio cuisine
• Storytellers, singers, and folk musicians along the village streets
• Flag-wavers and historical pageants in costume
• Falconry, donkey rides, and children's workshops

Flavors of the Lazio autumn

Food is the true guiding thread of the festival. Alongside the new wine, you will find chestnuts, legumes, new olive oil, cheeses, and cured meats from local producers. Traditional menus, usually served in a convivial setting at a fixed price, offer appetizers of local products, traditional Roman pasta dishes, meat courses, and seasonal desserts. The local hospitality school has collaborated on the preparations for years, with students working in the dining room and kitchen alongside association volunteers.

A community event

The festival is organized by the Municipality of Formello together with the Pro Loco and a dense network of local associations, with the support of the BCC of Formello and Trevignano Romano. It is this choral dimension that gives the event its character: not a manufactured event, but a village festival that has grown edition after edition, reaching its eighteenth year in 2025.

Formello, half an hour from Rome

Formello is located just over twenty kilometers from the Grande Raccordo Anulare, in a landscape of tufa rock, ravines, and Etruscan heritage linked to the ancient city of Veio. The San Martino Festival is the best opportunity to discover the village off-season, when the autumn light and the scent of the cellars reveal an authentic image of the Lazio region closest to the capital, yet less frequented by mass tourism.