Summer in Belnome - Social dinner and dances with the pifferi

A feast in the heart of Val Boreca

Summer in Belnome is the summer festival of one of the smallest and most evocative hamlets in the Municipality of Ottone, in the province of Piacenza, in the southernmost part of Emilia-Romagna. Belnome is located in Val Boreca, a remote and wild valley nestled in the Apennine mountains, where stone villages retain a timeless atmosphere. Every summer, the Mutual Aid Society of Belnome brings the village back to life with a series of evenings culminating, on the evening of August 14th, in the traditional social dinner followed by dances with the pifferi.

The piffero of the Four Provinces

The true protagonist of the festival is the Apennine piffero, the popular oboe that characterizes the cultural area of the so-called Four Provinces (Piacenza, Pavia, Alessandria, and Genoa). Together with the accordion, the piffero accompanies the ancient dances of this territory: the monferrina, the alessandrina, the piana, the giga a due, and the giga a quattro. These are group dances, where collective phases alternate with moments when dancers face each other in pairs, according to a repertoire passed down from generation to generation. Listening to the piffero in Belnome means experiencing firsthand one of the oldest living musical traditions of the entire northern Apennines.

The season's program

The social dinner on August 14th is the heart of Belnome's summer, but it is not the only event. The calendar continues with other evenings dedicated to music and conviviality:

• August 14 - Social dinner followed by dances with the pifferi
• August 20 - Aperitif with pifferi and traditional dances
• September 5 - End-of-summer party

The evenings take place in the hamlet's community space, where dinner tables then give way to space for dancing. These are village events, organized on an associative and voluntary basis, which attract residents, vacationers, and folk music enthusiasts from outside the valley as well.

A village to discover

Participating in Summer in Belnome is also an opportunity to discover a little-known corner of the Emilian Apennines. Val Boreca, administratively divided between the municipalities of Ottone and Zerba, is a land of trails, woods, and ancient villages, where each hamlet has preserved its own balera (dance hall) for summer festivals. The sobriety and authenticity of these events are their most precious feature: nothing built for tourism, but a community celebration that endures and renews itself every year.