Borgo Casamale · Monte Somma · Vesuvius
A journey through the culinary memory of the territory: rural gestures, family preserves, ancient vines and stories handed down among the alleys of the Festa delle Lucerne.
Begin the storyWhen food becomes memory
Vesuvian cuisine was born in fields, vineyards, courtyards and pantries. For generations, preserving food meant protecting the harvest, making it through winter and passing knowledge on.
This page is not about products for sale. It tells the story of gestures, aromas and traditions belonging to the community of Monte Somma and to the cultural landscape of the Festa delle Lucerne.
Every preserve holds a season. Every flavour gives a story back.
First journey
Not simply ingredients, but fragments of everyday life preserved in popular cuisine.
Piennolo tomatoes
At the end of the harvest, tomatoes were woven into large bunches and hung in storerooms and homes. The piennolo extended the life of the summer crop, bringing colour and flavour to the cold months.
Its presence in family pantries spoke of a whole season’s work and of a rural culture determined not to waste the gifts of the land.
An ancient way of carrying summer into winter.
Friarielli
Their pleasantly bitter character, garlic sizzling in oil and the sound of the pan all belong to the domestic memory of Naples and the Vesuvian area.
Prepared through a few simple gestures, friarielli show how popular cuisine can turn simplicity into identity.
A fragrance that can take you home before the first taste.
Papaccella peppers
The Neapolitan papaccella has long appeared in preserves, appetisers and festive meals. Its rounded shape and recognisable flavour have made it part of a family heritage of personal recipes and seasonal preparation.
Calling it simply a pepper means losing part of its story.
Do not call it just a pepper.
Neapolitan-style aubergines
First slicing, then salt, weight and waiting. The aubergines were slowly pressed to remove their water before being preserved in oil.
There were no shortcuts: time was part of the recipe, and preparation often became a shared family ritual.
First salt. Then weight. Then time. Finally, oil.
Country-style escarole
Escarole, olives, capers and whatever the pantry offered created a dish rich in contrasts. It showed how home cooking needed no abundance to create depth.
Every table kept its own variation, yet all told the same story: respect the season and transform what is available with care.
A different recipe in every home, a shared memory.
Monte Somma and Vesuvius
Second journey
When oral memory meets the landscape, a vine or a small flame can become the symbol of an entire community.
Catalanesca
Local tradition connects the arrival of Catalanesca on Monte Somma with the Aragonese presence in the Kingdom of Naples. The popular story tells that Alfonso of Aragon brought vines from Catalonia and entrusted them to the volcanic lands of Somma.
Over time, the boundary between chronicle and legend became delicate. What remains is a grape variety deeply connected to the local landscape, known for centuries mainly as a table grape and now one of the territory’s most recognisable expressions.
A vine that came from across the sea and became part of the identity of Vesuvius.
The oil lamps
Before electric light, small flames accompanied homes, prayers and winter evenings. During the festival they once again draw the alleys and turn darkness into shared memory.
Alfonso and Lucrezia
The lives of Alfonso of Aragon and Lucrezia d’Alagno cross fifteenth-century Naples and still inspire local stories linking power, affection and the Vesuvian landscape.
Vesuvius
The volcanic landscape is not merely a backdrop. It has shaped crops, habits and flavours, building a continuous relationship between fertility, labour and respect for nature.
Stories of Light, Land and Vesuvius
In-depth stories created for the experience panels and also accessible through QR codes.
The legend of the fire of Vesuvius
Read the story →❧StoryAn enduring love on the slopes of Vesuvius
Read the story →🏘StoryAn ancient and mysterious heart
Read the story →✋StoryThe hands that preserve Vesuvius
Read the story →A cultural landscape
Borgo Casamale, Monte Somma, fields and vineyards are not separate chapters. Together they create a single landscape made of light, cultivation, architecture and memory.
The Festa delle Lucerne becomes the meeting point between what the land produces and what the community continues to tell.
During the Festival
The journey connects the alleys of Casamale with the stories of the land. Every taste becomes the final part of a story that began in fields, pantries and family memory.
Find out where to meet usLand, Flavours and Legends
This page is an invitation to look beyond the recipe and recognise, in every gesture of Vesuvian cuisine, the presence of a territory and the people who continue to preserve it.
Continue with the Festival’s story →