Posted by Valerie Schneider, Panorama Italy

Ascoli Piceno is a monumental city, made that way first by the Romans and then by the “captains of the people,” the power brokers who ruled the province during the Middle Ages and Renaissance period.  Public buildings were constructed to impress and to display the city’s prominence.  Private palaces and churches were also designed to be imposing.  The entire city center was built using stately travertine quarried from nearby hills, furthering the impression of noble importance.

 The use of cream-colored travertine gives Ascoli Piceno an air of solidity and classic splendor.  The marble-like stone is carved into decorative embellishments while immense blocks of it are used for the public structures.  

With such grand, commanding edifices around town, it is refreshing to set eyes upon the graceful Caffe Meletti.  The inviting rose-hued building with delicate-looking tables and arched porch helps bring the city back down to a human scale.

Situated on Ascoli Piceno’s much beloved Piazza del Popolo, the Caffe Meletti is the grand dame of the city’s meeting places – a place to linger over drinks or throw back a quick cappuccino.  The historic hang-out has been featured in a number of films and has played a starring role in the daily life of the Ascolani for a century.

The pink Neoclassic building boasts a frescoed portico, elegant arches, and pastel seating on the piazza, giving it a front-row seat to the people parade and daily activity of the town.  Inside it is marked by marble-topped tables, warm woods, towering mirrors and a graceful spiral staircase, all original fixtures. The entire place oozes charm and speaks of sophistication.  The Meletti has been designated on the roster as one of Italy’s 150 historic caffes.

Built in 1884 to house the post office, it was transformed into a cafè and distillery by Silvio Meletti, who began producing his now-famous anisette. It was immediately heralded as rich and refined, and quickly become the town’s favorite meeting point, watering hole, and elegant indulgence- a place where even a simple coffee seems special.

In the morning, the draw is the pasticceria, where buttery croissants and fruit-filled pastries are washed down with well-crafted cappuccini.  At lunchtime, daily specials are served piazza-side.  Pre-dinner drinks are served with flourish and a nice sampling of nibbles.  For the after-dinner crowd, decadent anisette-infused desserts are offered. 

One century after its debut, it is still serving the illustrious, the infamous, and the average joes, and giving a pastel personal touch to a monumental town.

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Valerie Schneider is a travel professional turned freelance writer and tour guide who moved to Ascoli Piceno in the beautiful region of Le Marche in 2006. She and her husband Bryan operate Panorama Italy, planning personalized journeys so travelers can experience the colors and flavors of a little known corner of Italy. Walking tours, winery visits, and genealogy trips are just a few of their offerings. Visit Panorama Italy for more information on this beautiful place and how Valerie and Bryan can help you experience it personally

As Cheryl pointed out in her recent post, summer is starting, bringing with it the pretty poppies and sweet-faced sunflowers all over Italy.  It also brings heightened activity.  Summer means sagras and festivals, making it the ideal time to travel and experience life like a local.

Typical Sagra posters

A sagra in Italy is akin to a county fair in Midwest America … but better. Deriving from the term sacra festa, they are frequently held in conjunction with a religious festival or a patron saint’s feast day and feature some type of religious observation or procession as part of the activity line-up. But for the most part, as with everything in Italy, it boils down to the food. While it may proclaim a saint’s day, the bigger headline is the type of delicacy they will be cooking up.  Make that delicious, delectable delicacies.

Cooks preparing for the sagra

If there is a food item in Italy, there is a sagra dedicated to it.  In our area of Ascoli Piceno we are especially drawn to any festa that will be grilling up arrosticini, an Abruzzo and Marche specialty, which are skewers containing flavorful little nuggets of lamb meat. The wafting smell of the grilling meat is unbelievably enticing and even if I’m not very hungry, I cave in and order a skewer once my nostrils get a whiff of the barbecuing meat.

There are sagre to celebrate the local wines, and polenta fests with a variety of toppings (sausage, fish, clams, or snails, take your pick). Truffles and porcini mushrooms are perennially popular in these parts as are all things pig. I lost count of the number of festivals dedicated to pork, either roasted in its entirety, served as a grilled chop, or in one of its processed forms such as sausage and prosciutto.

Many sagre have fund-raising efforts for the church or organization hosting the party, which usually takes the form of the Pesca di Beneficenza, a kind of raffle lottery. You pay a few euros and receive prizes based on the corresponding numbers you draw.  The most prized award is frequently a whole prosciutto.

Music is obligatory at sagre, normally local groups churning out a combination of folk songs and rock tunes before a wildly appreciative audience. The crowd loves it and dancing always ensues at each of these events. It’s all a lot of home-spun fun with good food at low prices, and a pleasant way to pass a summer evening in the company of fun-loving locals.

Roasting chestnuts

Which is the other reason we love a good sagra…the company.  Most festivals offer long, rectangular communal tables for dining.  We purposely pick seats with others already occupying a portion of the table so we can interact.  In our sagra experience, we’ve found that people are generally congenial and, at nearly every festival we’ve attended, we’ve had someone chat with us and offer us wine from their pitcher. “È troppo,” they tell us.  We have too much wine for just the two of us, take some. Since Italians don’t feel a meal is complete without wine, they always buy a liter. Since most of them drink only a glass or two, they know they’ll not consume it all, so it’s customary to offer some to whoever happens to be sitting nearby.  We have been likewise plied with homemade liqueurs and desserts our table-mates have toted along with them.  We have made some lasting friendships at these festivals.

So how do you find a sagra or festa?  Most towns have a wall dedicated to posters to inform the citizens of upcoming events.  Look them over to see what foods and festivals are highlighted.  Ask your hosts, the barista of your favorite caffe, or the tourist information office.

This summer if you find yourself in Italy, try out a festival or two.  You’re guaranteed a good time and a good meal, and you just might make yourself a friend or two along the way.

To find sagras and festivals in Italy, check these helpful websites:

Eventi e Sagre

Tutte Le Sagre

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Valerie and Bryan

Valerie Schneider is a travel professional turned freelance writer and tour guide who moved to Ascoli Piceno in the beautiful region of Le Marche in 2006. She and her husband Bryan operate Panorama Italy, planning personalized journeys so travelers can experience the colors and flavors of a little known corner of Italy. Walking tours, winery visits, and genealogy trips are just a few of their offerings. Visit Panorama Italy for more information on this beautiful place and how Valerie and Bryan can help you experience it personally.

During my years as a travel agent, I booked thousands of trips.  From neatly packaged resort vacations to cruises, guided tours, and once-in-a-lifetime journeys, I helped people vacate their routine and visit a new place.  I have always considered vacation to be a necessity, a much needed break from work stress and familiar ruts, and I found it rewarding to assist others to achieve just that.

Unfortunately, I quickly detected two disconcerting patterns:  I found myself booking the same companies, the same hotels, the same packages repeatedly, a sort of one-size-fits-all vacation.  I also noticed that many of my clients returned home exhausted from trying to cram too much into their limited time frame.  They regretted missing certain areas, not having enough time to spend in particular museums, or hearing about out-the-way charming towns that they wouldn’t be able to squeeze into their schedules.  They wanted to be doing it all, instead of doing it well.  I came to realize this mode of travel most certainly wasn’t for me.

Scenic picnic spot for Bryan, Valerie and her parents

But what was the alternative?  I had not yet been initiated into the world of vacation rentals or concentric circles.  Slow Travel was not yet on my radar.  Then I bought tickets for my first trip to Italy and, for the first time since I started working in the travel industry, the entire process of trip planning was taken out of my hands.  My parents were undertaking slow travel of the maritime variety, having sailed across the Atlantic on what I considered a much-too-small sailboat, and had parked themselves in Gaeta, a pretty town located on Italy’s kneecap.  They told me that I needed a vacation from planning vacations, come for a visit and they would take care of everything.

Well, one can hardly refuse such an offer, though I admit it felt strange to pack a suitcase for a trip I hadn’t arranged, the details of which I knew nothing about.  Fortunately, my mother instinctively recognized the types of sights and experiences that would most interest me.  Instead of trying to see the entire Italian peninsula in two weeks, they wisely chose three locales: Chianti, Gaeta and Rome.

In Gaeta, we recuperated from jetlag, enjoyed leisurely lunches, and visited pretty villages, as well as the amazing historic sights like Pompeii, while returning to our floating home each evening.  In Chianti I had my first encounter of the agriturismo variety.  We spent several nights in an apartment on an organic wine estate and I fell fast in love – with the farm, with Italy, and with this “new” form of lodging.  By the time we reached Rome, I was fully smitten and ready to return as soon as possible.  I went home feeling like I had a vacation that was created just for me…because it was!  It was all perfectly planned by my mother based on my own interests instead of someone else’s ideas of what to see.

Shortly after that trip, I left the travel agency to take a corporate consulting position, but not before spreading the word with every agent who would listen about this fabulous mode of slowing down and experiencing the true essence of a place.

For all of our subsequent trips we focused our energies on engaging in the culture, interacting with the locals, and seeping ourselves in the history of each new place.

Naturally, when we moved to Italy and found ourselves in a beautiful, vibrant, and relatively undiscovered city, the natural travel agent in me wanted to help others see it and enjoy it to the fullest.  We wanted to be able to share the little family-run wineries, the colorful, historic seasonal events, the tiny restaurants with recited menus that change daily, based on the freshest seasonal produce, along with lovely lodgings in the countryside they would never find themselves.  We wanted to introduce people personally to Ascoli Piceno and all her glories; that is why Panorama Italy offers personalized tours that are created for each individual client, centering on the activities and cultural experiences that they value most.

Ascoli Piceno

I think that is why I am so thrilled to be a part of Slow Travel Tours.  Each company is personal.  Each is personally owned, not a corporate offshoot; each offers personally and carefully planned itineraries to give travelers the best possible experiences; and each focuses on a specific location with personal, in-depth knowledge of the places and people there.  They immerse travelers into the culture instead of skimming the surface.

Take it from a recovered travel agent; it is far superior to the old one-size-fits-all approach any day.

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Valerie and Bryan

Valerie Schneider is a travel professional turned freelance writer and tour guide who moved to Ascoli Piceno in the beautiful region of Le Marche in 2006. She and her husband Bryan operate Panorama Italy, planning personalized journeys so travelers can experience the colors and flavors of a little known corner of Italy. Walking tours, winery visits, and genealogy trips are just a few of their offerings. Visit Panorama Italy for more information on this beautiful place and how Valerie and Bryan can help you experience it personally.