Sulmona runs a medieval equestrian tournament twice a year — late July and late August — in the city's main square, Piazza Garibaldi. Six competing rioni (historic city quarters) send knights on horseback to compete in a jousting-like challenge against a mechanical target. It's not a tourist reconstruction: Sulmona has been doing this, with interruptions for wars, since the 1400s. Here's what to know before you go.
The Giostra Cavallerizza (literally, "riding arena tournament") has roots in the late medieval tradition of equestrian competitions held across central Italian cities — the same impulse that produces the Palio in Siena and the Giostra della Quintana in Foligno. Sulmona's specific version traces to the 15th century under the d'Aquino and later the d'Avalos noble families who governed the city.
The modern revival began in 1969, organized by the Comitato per le Manifestazioni Storiche. The event was formally institutionalized in 1993 and is now managed by six competing rioni: Centro Storico, Porta Napoli, Porta Bonomini, Quattro Cantoni, Rione Ezio, and Rione Pallante. Each rione has its own colours, flag-throwers (sbandieratori), and a designated knight who trains year-round.
The parallels with Siena's Palio are real but the scale is different — Sulmona's population is 25,000 vs Siena's 54,000, the square is smaller, and the event is genuinely community-driven rather than touristically packaged. You can walk into the practice sessions in the weeks before, talk to the trainers, and get information that no official programme will tell you.
Each knight rides at a mechanical target called the "saraceno" (Saracen) — a rotating wooden figure mounted on a pole. The knight must strike a designated point on the target with a lance while riding at speed. If the hit is off-centre, the figure rotates and a counterweight arm swings back — potentially hitting the rider. Accuracy and timing are everything.
Scoring: each run is judged by a panel on accuracy, speed, and technique. Multiple rounds are run in bracket format. The winning rione collects the palio (a painted banner commissioned for that year) and bragging rights in the city's bars for the next six months.
The evening is preceded by a procession of all six rioni in medieval costume — roughly 400 participants — through the city centre. The costumes are historically researched (15th-century Abruzzo noble dress) and replaced on a rotation cycle. The flag-throwing displays (giochi di bandiera) before the tournament are technically excellent — some teams have competed at national level.
Summer edition: Last Saturday of July 2026 (typically 25–26 July). Procession starts at 7pm, tournament begins at 8:30pm, ends around 10:30pm.
Autumn edition: Last Sunday of August 2026 (typically 30–31 August). Same format, often better weather for photography.
Tickets: Available from the Comitato website (giostra-sulmona.it) from June, or at the tourist office in Piazza Garibaldi from July. Tribune seats: €12–18. Free standing access opens from 5pm on the day.
Getting there: Sulmona is 90km east of Rome on the A24/A25, 1h20 by car. Train: Roma Tiburtina to Sulmona, 1h40, €12–18, 6–7 trains daily. No direct bus from Rome. From Pescara: 1h by car, 1h30 by train.
Where to stay: Book early — July/August in Sulmona is high season. Best options: Hotel Ovidius (centre, €85–120/night), Residenza Degli Abbati (historic palazzo, €95–140), B&B Al Vicolo (most central, €65–85). For a different base: L'Aquila (40 min drive) has more hotel options and is a fascinating post-earthquake reconstruction story.
Sulmona deserves a day beyond the Giostra. The city was the birthplace of Ovid (43 BC) — the Piazza XX Settembre has a bronze statue, and the municipal museum on Corso Ovidio houses finds from the ancient city. The Cattedrale di San Panfilo (12th century) and the Palazzo Annunziata (15th century, now civic museum) are both worth an hour.
The confetti di Sulmona — sugar-coated almonds in shaped clusters (flowers, fruits, wreaths) — are the city's most famous product, produced by about 30 local manufacturers. The best: Mario Pelino (founded 1783, on Viale Peligna), William DiCarlo (Via Stazione). A 200g box runs €8–15. These are not the hard-coated almonds you find elsewhere — Sulmona confetti uses local Avola almonds with a softer sugar coating and comes in genuine almond flavour, not synthetic.
The Gole del Sagittario (15km south): a spectacular limestone gorge through the Apennines, accessible by a 3km walking path. Pairs perfectly with a morning in Sulmona and the evening tournament. Also: Scanno lake (30km south) is among Italy's most photogenic Alpine lakes.
Yes — the procession is colourful and genuinely child-friendly, and the tournament is exciting without being graphic. The evening start time (8pm) means younger children may struggle with the schedule; the August edition runs slightly later but the summer heat has usually broken by then. Reserved seating with a good view is strongly recommended with children — the standing areas can get crowded and views are blocked.
The key difference: the Palio involves actual horse racing on the city square with jockeys, and the competition is intense, often violent, with horses sometimes falling. The Giostra involves knights riding individually against a mechanical target — no horse-to-horse contact, no falls (usually). The Palio has 17 contrade competing in elimination rounds; Sulmona has 6 rioni. The Palio is globally famous and attended by 50,000+ people; Sulmona is largely unknown outside central Italy. The Sulmona experience is more accessible, cheaper, and doesn't require the weeks of political manoeuvring that Siena involves.
The weekend around each Giostra has subsidiary events: archery competitions (tiro con l'arco storico) the day before, a medieval market (mercatino medievale) in the side streets with costumes, food, and crafts, and sbandieratori (flag-throwing) demonstrations in the piazza in the afternoon. The participating rioni hold dinners in their neighbourhood squares the night before — these are semi-open, with a per-head charge of €15–25 that often gets you a seat if you ask at the rione headquarters earlier in the day.
Related reading: Abruzzo Complete Guide | Hidden Abruzzo | Italy Events 2026 | Italian Medieval Festivals
Understanding which rione to cheer for requires knowing their histories and current tournament records:
Centro Storico (historic centre, blue and white): The oldest-established rione, historically dominant in the 1990s when the modern tournament took shape. Their knight traditionally comes from equestrian families in the Peligna valley. Supporters: the city's old bourgeoisie and professionals who live in the historic centre.
Porta Napoli (Naples Gate quarter, red and black): Southern entrance quarter, historically the most working-class rione. Their flag-throwers are technically the best in the competition — three-time national champions in historical games (giochi storici). Fiercest rivalry: with Quattro Cantoni.
Porta Bonomini (green and yellow): Named after the 15th-century noble Bonomini family who owned the quarter's main palazzo. The newest serious contender — three wins in the last decade after being seen as a perennial second-tier rione.
Quattro Cantoni (Four Corners, orange and black): The central crossroads quarter. Their knight has won three of the last seven tournaments. Known for aggressive riding style.
Rione Ezio (named for the Roman general Aetius, purple and silver): The most historically-themed rione, named for Flavius Aetius who commanded Roman armies at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (451 AD) and had Peligna valley origins. An enthusiastic but consistently second-place competitor.
Rione Pallante (white and red): The newest rione by formation, established 1993. Improved steadily; their 2021 win was their first and caused city-wide celebration in their neighbourhood (Via Mazara area, near the aqueduct).
The day of the Giostra requires active planning — the city fills up and the best restaurants have limited seating by 12:30pm:
Morning: The confetti factories. Three of Sulmona's confetti manufacturers offer free tours of their production on weekday mornings: Mario Pelino (Via Introdacqua 55, open 9am–1pm Mon–Fri, tel: 0864/210047), William Di Carlo (Via Stazione 12, open 9am–12pm and 3–7pm), Confetti Stilla (Via dei Vestini). The machines that sugar-coat individual almonds are 19th-century German engineering marvels still in daily operation.
Midday: Lunch options for tournament day. Book ahead. Best options: La Cantina di Biferno (Via Mazzara 35) for pecora alla callara (slow-cooked mutton, the signature Peligna dish), €18–25pp; or Ristorante Armando (Via Mazara 25) for chitarra pasta with lamb ragù, €20–28pp. Both are within walking distance of Piazza Garibaldi.
Afternoon: The historic centre walk. Sulmona's main street (Corso Ovidio) has the Palazzo dell'Annunziata — a 15th-century Gothic-Renaissance palace housing the civic museum. The Roman aqueduct arch that crosses the main street at Piazza Garibaldi is one of the most unusual urban monuments in Italy: a 13th-century reconstruction of a 1st-century AD Roman aqueduct, integrated into the city fabric over 700 years of building around it.
Evening: Tournament logistics. If you're in the standing section: arrive by 6:30pm for an 8pm start. The procession enters from the north side of the piazza — the view from the church steps is better for the procession; the best view of the actual jousting is from the east stand (south end of the square). Bring a jacket — Sulmona at 400m elevation gets cold after sunset even in July.
Scanno (40 min south, 1,050m elevation): One of Italy's most photographed mountain villages — a medieval wool-trade centre with distinctive local costume still worn by older women on market days. The lake (Lago di Scanno) below the town is formed by a landslide-dammed valley and is surrounded by beech forest. Excellent swimming July–August.
Pacentro (10km east): Madonna Ciociara's village — a cliff-edge medieval town whose annual Corsa degli Zingari (Race of the Gypsies) involves young men racing barefoot up a steep mountain track. Held first Sunday of September.
Gorge of the Sagittario (15km south from Sulmona): A 500m-deep limestone gorge accessible via a 3km path from Villalago. The path is easy, the views are extraordinary, the swimming hole at the gorge floor (summer only) is one of Abruzzo's most satisfying natural swimming spots.
Cocullo (30km west): Site of Italy's strangest religious festival — the Festa dei Serpari (Snake Catchers Festival) on the first Thursday of May. The statue of Saint Domenico is covered with live snakes and carried through the village. The tradition combines pre-Christian snake worship (the Paeligni tribe, ancestors of Sulmona's population, venerated a snake goddess) with Christian iconography. Worth timing your trip for if you're in the region in May.
Caramanico Terme (35km northeast, 700m elevation): A thermal spa town in the Maiella mountain national park. The sulphur water emerges at 32°C and feeds three terme establishments. Day access: €20–30. The Maiella National Park above the town has wolf and brown bear populations (rarely seen, always present).
Pescocostanzo (45km southeast, 1,395m elevation): The most architecturally preserved medieval town in Abruzzo — a 15th–16th-century wool-trade centre with an entirely intact historic centre. The Basilica of Santa Maria del Colle is Abruzzo's finest Renaissance church. In winter: a functioning ski resort. In summer: cool, uncrowded, extraordinary light for photography.
Campo Imperatore (65km via L'Aquila, 1,400m): The Gran Sasso plateau — a high-altitude plain of 25km × 5km that genuinely looks like Tibet. The road from Assergi goes up through a 10km tunnel to emerge suddenly into this landscape. The Osservatorio Astronomico (astronomical observatory) runs public nights in summer (€10–15pp). Campo Imperatore is also where Mussolini was imprisoned after his arrest in July 1943 — and from which German paratroopers rescued him in September 1943 (the "Gran Sasso Raid"). The small museum documenting the event at the hotel is worth 30 minutes.
Sulmona's sugar-coated almonds are not souvenir tat. The confetti tradition here is 500 years old and uses a fundamentally different production process from commercial Jordan almonds elsewhere: a revolving copper pan (bassine) coats individual Avola almonds in slow-build sugar layers over 6–8 hours, producing a shell that is thin, slightly rough, and genuinely almond-scented rather than purely sugary. The almonds come from Avola in Sicily — the only variety accepted by the Istituto Nazionale Confettieri.
The decorative arrangements (confetti shaped into flowers, wedding bouquets, wheat sheaves, animal forms) are made by a separate craft — confettiere who spend years learning how to wire, bind, and arrange individual confetti pieces into stable structures. A wedding confetti centerpiece can take 40 hours to make. The Museo dell'Arte Confettiera (confetti art museum), inside Mario Pelino's establishment on Viale Peligna, shows the entire history of the craft from the 15th century to the present. Open Monday–Saturday, free entry.
Price guide: Simple sugar-coated almonds: €18–25 per kg. Mixed colour arrangements: €8–15 per 100g box. Large decorative pieces: €30–120 depending on complexity. Buy direct from the manufacturer — retail shops on Corso Ovidio charge 30–40% more for the same product.
Abruzzo and neighbouring Molise have a higher concentration of authentic medieval and historical festivals per capita than almost any other Italian region. If you're visiting for the Giostra, the following festivals are within 90 minutes' drive and may coincide:
Giostra della Quintana, Foligno (Umbria, 90km northwest): Held on the second and third Saturday of September. 10 competing rioni, equestrian jousting against the Quintana figure. The most technically complex equestrian tournament in Italy — riders must lance a small ring. Population 57,000 vs Sulmona's 25,000 means more organization and more crowds. Tickets €15–35. Arguably Italy's finest equestrian tournament but harder to get close to the action than Sulmona.
Palio di Sulmona (precursor events, early July): Not the Giostra itself but the territorial celebrations in the weeks preceding — archery, flag-throwing, medieval markets in Sulmona's satellite villages. Check local tourist office for dates.
Torneo dei Rioni, Castel del Monte (L'Aquila, 40km west): A smaller-scale crossbow tournament in the tiny hilltop village of Castel del Monte, not the better-known Castel del Monte of Puglia. Held in August, deeply local, almost no tourist infrastructure. Worth attending precisely because there's no tourist apparatus — it's the village doing its thing without an audience.
Festa dei Serpari, Cocullo (Abruzzo, 30km from Sulmona, first Thursday of May): The snake festival. Already described above in the day trips section, but worth repeating: this is one of Italy's most genuinely ancient surviving rituals. The combination of live snakes and Catholic procession is unlike anything else in Italy. International media covers it annually and still can't quite explain it.
Our Abruzzo guides can arrange tickets, accommodation, and a full day in the Peligna valley around the tournament.
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