Sagra dei Fichi d’India a Castel Morrone

Surrounded by very green hills, where flocks of sheep graze and oregano and abundant prickly pears grow, the small 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 stands are set up, offering the prickly pear in all possible and imaginable ways: from eating it natural to liqueur and cannoli made with the cream of its fruits. It is indeed the belief of the people of Morrone 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 like homemade ziti with mutton ragù; abbuoti, rolls made with the less prized parts of sheep and tied with intestines; or mutton meat caurarone style, cooked slowly in tomato to remove the wild taste. Adding to the atmosphere are also craft exhibitions, dialect plays, and performances by folkloric groups. Not to be missed is a visit to Monte Castello, which dominates the inhabited area and is reachable in a few minutes thanks to an asphalted 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 in memory of Pilade Bronzetti, a Garibaldian hero who, with two hundred men, stood against five thousand Bourbon soldiers on October 1, 1860.