Prickly Pear Festival in Castel Morrone

Surrounded by lush green hills where flocks of sheep graze and oregano and abundant prickly pears grow, the town dedicates a long and lively festival to this fruit, which has been held for over thirty years in the first ten days of September. In the area in front of the sports field, many small stalls are set up offering prickly pear in every possible and imaginable way: from eating it fresh to liqueurs and cannoli filled with the cream of its fruit. The people of Morronese firmly believe that their “prickly pear” is the most flavorful and tasty in all of Southern Italy. But the festival is also an opportunity to discover the rich local cuisine, with dishes such as homemade ziti pasta with lamb ragù; abbuoti, rolls made from the less prized parts of sheep tied with intestines; or lamb meat cooked in the traditional style called caurarone, simmered slowly in tomato to remove the gamey taste. Complementing the event are crafts exhibitions, dialect plays, and folk group performances. A visit to Monte Castello is a must; it overlooks the town and is accessible in a few minutes by an asphalt road: here you can visit the remains of the Norman castle with its keep, the medieval church dedicated to the Madonna of the Castle, and behind the building, through a narrow passage, the monument honoring Pilade Bronzetti, a Garibaldi hero who, with two hundred men, held off five thousand Bourbon soldiers on October 1, 1860.