Delicate pistachio products
The Pistachio Festival is a two weekend festival to celebrate the famous green pistachios of Bronte. The festival begins each year in the end of September during the pistachio’s harvest. Not only the people of Bronte, also many tourists from abroad Sicily come to taste the delicious typical pistachio products. Many residents from Bronte sell these local products, such as families or bars where you can taste the pistachio ice cream or fresh fried pistachio rice balls.
Pupils visiting the festival
Even school classes across the region attended the festival to inquire knowledge of the harvest and culture of pistachios. Starting their trip from “Piazza Roma” classes have visited the stands and taste the pistachio products together with their teachers.
Preparation of the local sweets
There were many typical products of the region, whereas the pistachio predominates as the main ingredient. Among all the exquisite pistachio products it was possible to choose from delicacies such as: pasta with pistachio, pistachio cake, pistachio pizza, pistachio cookies, pistachio sausage, etc. . Some stands also demonstrated the preparation of sweets showing the traditional food preparation. In addition to the stands dedicated to the local cuisine, there were other stands exhibiting handicrafts offering the opportunity to buy various products.
Historic harvesting machine at the harvest museum “Museo della Raccolta”
Interested visitors had the opportunity to learn more about the history of pistachio cultivation in the Harvest Museum in Piazza Piave. A local association presented the harvesting techniques showing historic machines and books about the history of Bronte and the surrounding area. A projected video described the way of harvesting the fruits.
At the Real Collegio Capizzi it was possible to see the evidence of the literary and political history of Bronte, Sicily and Italy. The library of the College retains a large amount of antique books, among others a copy of Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” from 1536. The library was one of the largest in Sicily during the “Kingdom of the Two Sicilies” and is exposing also objetcs from its very end. For example: An original notice from Guiseppe Garibaldi’s general about the Massacre of Bronte during the Italian unification (Risorgimento).
After sunset famous DJs and street artists entertained the visitors, like the very famous Sicilian group Roy Paci & Aretuska, who performed a concert in front of a huge crowd of people.
All in all you can eat very nice in the “Italian capital of pistachios”, listen to beautiful music and get to know the region. We are looking forward to the next “Sagra del pistacchio”!
~ Written text and images by Tilo Weber, Miguel Torres García, Ana María Velasco Trives, Selina Gremmler, Flavio Salomone and Lykke Heine.
Volunteers European Voluntary Service in Bronte, Sicily