The Rice Days

The rice festival in the Po Delta

In Jolanda di Savoia, a small municipality in the province of Ferrara nestled in the lowlands between the Po and Volano rivers, rice is not just a crop: it is identity. This town in the lower Ferrara region, once called Le Venezie and renamed in 1911 in honor of Princess Jolanda of Savoy, is considered the Emilian capital of rice and overlooks the Po Delta Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Every year, in the second half of August, its rice fields provide the backdrop for Le Giornate del Riso, the festival celebrating Delta del Po PGI Rice, a grain that tells centuries of land reclamation, peasant labor, and gastronomic wisdom.

The RistoRiso stand and local flavors

The culinary heart of the event is the RistoRiso food stand, where rice is featured in dozens of risotto dishes: from pumpkin and sausage to radicchio, from seafood to cacio, pepe e guanciale, from gorgonzola and walnuts to delicate rosemary and lemon. Alongside the risottos, there are dishes that pair rice with the excellences of other festivals, a piadina made with a mix of rice and spelt flour, and a bar area with ice cream and sorbet for summer evenings.

Music, engines, and peasant tradition

Le Giornate del Riso is not just about gastronomy. Every evening there is live musical entertainment, with concerts and shows that liven up the town center; there are also tombola games with prizes, stalls, and an area dedicated to children. Among the most characteristic offerings are the plowing demonstrations with vintage tractors, which recreate the farm work of the past, and the vintage car and motorcycle rallies that attract enthusiasts from all over the area. It is a festival that combines taste, rural memory, and the typical conviviality of the towns in the Po Valley.

A Quality Festival

Organized by Pro Loco Eventi Le Venezie aps with the patronage of the Municipality of Jolanda di Savoia, the event has over thirty years of history and has obtained the recognition of Sagra di Qualità (Quality Festival) from UNPLI, the National Union of Pro Loco of Italy. It is an event that well represents the Emilia-Romagna region of authentic festivals, far from the major tourist circuits and deeply linked to its product: the rice of the Ferrara plain.