Sulmona is known as the Citta d’Arte, hosting the International Exhibition of Contemporary Art and the Festival of Italian Cinema. For a small mountain-town, Sulmona also has an unexpected bonus. It hosts Abruzzo’s biggest and most beautiful Opera House – comparable only to those in the major cities of Milan, Rome and Naples. You can enjoy previews of national and international productions (before they move on to the big cities); the annual International Opera and Jazz festivals, the music festival in Scanno and the week-long Mozart marathon in Chieti.
The Citta d’Arte also has a year-long calendar full of cultural and religious festivals and events. Some of the highlights include: the wonderful “Madonna Che Scappa” at Easter; the week-long Giostra Cavalleresca, a spectacular medieval festival of jousting men on horseback in July; the eerily serene Torchlight Procession on beautiful Lake Scanno in September that marks the end of Summer and the procession of men in medieval outfits running around town serenading their wives (and brides-to-be) – perched on windows – with Neapolitan songs.
Slightly more menacing curiosities are the Procession of the Hooded in Scanno and the bizarre pagan procession of snakes in nearby town of Cocullo in September.
ll of this, plus the live nativity enactments over Christmas and New Year as well as year-round food festivals, make Sulmona a memorable place for people keen on experiencing the culture and history of a region that the rest of the world is just beginning to re- discover.
