Zungoli Chicozza Festival

An evening dedicated to the chicozza

The Zungoli Chicozza Festival is the gastronomic highlight marking the end of summer in Zungoli, a municipality in the province of Avellino, located in the heart of eastern Irpinia, just a few kilometers from the border with Puglia. The star of the show is the chicozza, a local variety of long, white-fleshed pumpkin. In Irpinian peasant culture, this pumpkin was sliced, peeled, and seeded, then sun-dried to be eaten during the cold months. This ingenious, humble preservation technique has become a small but significant piece of cultural heritage in inland Campania.

Why the chicozza is so important in Zungoli

For generations, agriculture was the only source of sustenance for families in the upper Ufita Valley; everything the land produced was set aside for winter. Dried chicozza was one of the most precious reserves, often appearing on tables during religious holidays and Christmas Eve, frequently paired with salt cod. The preparation remains unchanged: the dried slices are soaked in boiling water for a minute or two, drained, and then used as a base for traditional recipes. This is no museum piece: in the farmhouses, agritourisms, and restaurants of Irpinia, dried pumpkin has returned to being a staple.

What to eat

The festival is designed as a tasting tour: the food stalls set up by the Pro Loco offer rustic recipes where chicozza is the main ingredient, recovered from local family repertoires through the research of local associations. Alongside the signature dish, you will find other local products, starting with the cheeses that make this village famous.

• Traditional Irpinian peasant dishes based on dried chicozza
• Pairings with cheeses aged in tufa caves, most notably caciocavallo podolico
• Typical products from the upper Ufita Valley and Irpinian wines
• Traditional peasant sweets and preserves

Folk music and dancing in the square

The final part of the evening is dedicated to Southern folk music: pizzica, tarantella, and tammurriata enliven Piazza Municipio and the surrounding alleys, with bands inviting guests to join the dance. It is the moment when the festival stops being just a tasting event and becomes a true village celebration, bringing together residents, returning emigrants, and visitors drawn to the village.

Zungoli, the setting

The festival is worth visiting for the location alone. Zungoli has just over a thousand inhabitants and clings to a tufa hill overlooking the valley. It is a member of the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy (Borghi più belli d'Italia) association, has been awarded the Orange Flag, and placed third in the 2026 edition of the Borgo dei Borghi competition. The village's symbol is the Norman castle, built around 1080 on a rocky spur to control the valley and transformed over the centuries into a noble residence. Beneath the town lies a system of caves carved into the tufa, once used as shelters and cellars and now utilized for aging cheeses: the natural humidity and constant cool temperature make them the ideal environment for refining caciocavallo podolico, hung in pairs from wooden beams.

A piece of the Pro Loco summer calendar

The Zungoli Chicozza Festival is not an isolated event: it is part of the La Bella Estate a Zungoli – Tra vicoli fioriti e sapori sotto le stelle (The Beautiful Summer in Zungoli – Among flowered alleys and flavors under the stars) program, through which the Pro Loco Zungoli APS hosts events from April to September. The same calendar includes the Al Chiaro di Luppolo beer festival, the Formaggi sotto le Stelle (Cheeses under the Stars) tasting on the night of San Lorenzo, the Il Borgo Fiorito competition, and the Un Castello di Libri, di Fiabe e di Musica cultural festival. Visitors can easily build an entire weekend around the village, exploring caves, walking through the historic center, and enjoying other gastronomic events.