Wheat Festival

A city born from wheat

Pomezia, located in the heart of the Agro Pontino south of Rome, is a young city. Founded in 1939 as the final settlement of the Pontine Marshes reclamation project, it owes its existence to families of settlers who arrived primarily from Veneto, Friuli, and Emilia to cultivate land that had previously been impassable. The Wheat Festival was born from this legacy and brings it to life every year in Piazza Indipendenza, in the city center, in the province of Rome, Lazio.

What to expect

This event is more than a simple food festival; it is a historical re-enactment of agricultural labor, reconstructed in its complete sequence. Throughout the day, the phases that defined the farming year are showcased:

• Plowing — preparing the soil with traditional tools and historic tractors;
• Sowing — the broadcast sowing technique passed down by the founders;
• Harvesting — cutting the wheat stalks and forming sheaves;
• Threshing — the most spectacular moment, featuring vintage threshing machines separating the grain from the straw.

Surrounding these demonstrations are performers in period work clothes, folk groups, local product stalls, and community association booths. For children, the festival offers a rare opportunity to see agricultural machinery up close that would otherwise only be found in museums.

July 4, 1940

The date is no coincidence: the festival commemorates the first wheat threshing that took place on July 4, 1940, on the reclaimed lands of Pomezia, marking the community's agricultural birth. For this reason, the event is held in early July, just after the wheat harvest in the Roman countryside. For over thirty years, the Association of Founding Settlers of Pomezia has managed the organization with the support of the Municipality of Pomezia. Often, the direct descendants of the original settlers operate the machinery and explain the work processes to the public.

The fettuccine contest

The most anticipated and convivial moment is the fettuccine eating contest, traditionally held in Piazza Aldo Moro at the Nuova Lavinium neighborhood center. This speed-eating challenge for homemade fettuccine has become a defining tradition for Pomezia locals and a curious attraction for visitors. It brings the festival full circle: from grain to flour, from flour to pasta, and from pasta to the table.

Part of Pomezia Summer

The Wheat Festival effectively kicks off the Pomezia Summer program, a series of events promoted by the City of Pomezia that offers dozens of free activities from July to September between Pomezia and the seaside district of Torvaianica, including concerts, open-air cinema, theater performances, patronal feasts, and two "White Nights." Visitors attending the festival can easily extend their day by exploring both the historic center and the nearby Roman coastline.

Why it's worth the trip

In a region rich with medieval and Renaissance re-enactments, Pomezia offers something different: the memory of very recent 20th-century history, specifically the land reclamation and internal Italian migrations. It is a piece of modern Lazio's identity, told without rhetoric, using hands and machines in a square where the families who made that history still live today.