Tellina Festival

The tellina festival on the Roman coast

The Tellina Festival is the most famous maritime celebration at the Borghetto dei Pescatori, the ancient fishing village overlooking the sea in Ostia Lido, within the Municipality of Rome (Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, Lazio). Every year, between late August and early September, the narrow streets of the Borghetto fill with food stalls, music, and visitors from across the capital and the coast to celebrate the tellina, a small bivalve mollusk with a delicate, intense flavor that has been harvested from the sandy seabeds of the Ostia coast for generations.

The tellina takes center stage

The festival's signature dish is spaghetti with telline, prepared according to the traditional Roman recipe: garlic, oil, fresh parsley, white wine, and telline cooked in their own juices to preserve the flavor of the sea. Alongside the star dish, the stalls offer classic seafood cuisine from the Lazio coast:

• Fried paranza (small mixed fish) and mixed fried seafood
• Mussels and other local shellfish
• Risottos and first courses based on the daily catch
• Fish main courses and maritime specialties

In recent editions, over 4,000 kilograms of telline—harvested by hand in the shallow waters of Ostia—have been prepared, a testament to a fishing tradition that remains very much alive.

The rite of the Marriage with the Sea

The heart and soul of the event is the ancient rite of the Marriage with the Sea, a evocative ceremony where the fishing community symbolically renews its bond with the sea to invoke its protection and bounty. A procession of boats, in honor of the Madonna Stella Maris, patron saint of sailors, sets sail from the canal port toward the waters off Ostia, creating one of the most moving images of the festival. The ritual recalls the maritime roots of the Borghetto and preserves the memory of coastal fishing culture.

Music, markets, and community

Beyond the gastronomy, the program includes evening concerts, shows, entertainment, dance nights, artisan markets with displays and local curiosities, as well as meetings and initiatives dedicated to environmental sustainability and the promotion of traditional fishing. The festival is organized by the residents of the Borghetto dei Pescatori, who mobilize every year to keep the traditions and maritime culture of the Ostia area alive.

A tradition spanning over sixty years

With over sixty years of history, the Tellina Festival is now a staple of the Roman summer and a symbol of Ostia's identity. Strolling through the stalls of the Borghetto, just steps from the beach, means discovering an authentic corner of the coast, where the scent of seafood cooking mingles with the salt air and the stories of a community that has always lived by the sea.