The Warm Glow of Change: San Martino in Fano Adriano

In Fano Adriano, a small village in Teramo’s Gran Sasso mountains, rural traditions come alive with firelight, shared meals and wine, music, and the gentle glow of carved pumpkins, and show exactly why you should visit Abruzzo’s mountain villages in the Autumn.

Throughout Abruzzo, the weekends that top and tail the  November 11th San Martino Feast have long signalled the end of the farming year. Families would taste the first Vino Novello, roast chestnuts, and gather with neighbours to share the last harvest. San Martino was not about showing off, but about sharing, giving thanks, and staying close as winter neared.

Fano Adriano’s celebrations come straight from this tradition.  Lighting pumpkins, sharing food, gathering by the fire, listening to music and dancing all reflect the belief that good things are meant to be shared. Today, it still celebrates change and renewal.  The end of one work cycle for local farmers and the start of another.

A sign at the village’s festival describes how pumpkins are part of the story of survival in Fano Adriano.  How they were grown between the corn, to be used for calories through the winter, made into gnocchi in place of potatoes, used in soups and sweet dishes, fed to animals and hollowed out into lanterns long before Halloween ever reached Italy.

In these villages, pumpkins stood for abbondanza, protezione e luce, abundance, protection, and light. Carving and lighting them during San Martino was more than decoration; it was a way to guide, protect, and mark the change of season.

The festival also shows visitors how people here still see abundance. Big steaming bowls of sagne e fagioli and glasses of Vino Novello are given freely. There is no set price, just a request to give what you can, and keep alive San Martino’s spirit of sharing – he once cut his coat in two to help a beggar stay warm on a cold winter’s night.

In places like Fano Adriano, people survived by working together, trading bean plants, saving seeds, helping each other in the fields, and bringing food to neighbours without being asked. Everyone played a part, just as many unseen people, from local farmers to distant rare earth miners, make modern life possible.  It’s a very different ethos from today’s billionaires’ culture of wealth and accumulation. In the mountains, people measured wealth by how many they could feed and how much warmth they shared, not by what they kept for themselves when others needed help.

As dusk slides down the Gran Sasso, the village lights a great bonfire in the square. People gather with cups of Vino Novello, warming their hands as the flames catch. Pumpkins glow along the stone walls, children weave between them, walking, running, and biking, and a fantastic live folk band and dancers help further lift the mood.

Fano Adriano’s population is small, and many people now live elsewhere for work, especially after the L’Aquila earthquake. But on this autumn night, the village feels full.  Across the fire, you see a busy piazza, lights in the houses, and people talking at tables lined up in the streets, the kind of closeness that once defined mountain life before many moved to the cities.

Fano Adriano’s special festa speaks to what communities have always needed: light, food, togetherness, gratitude and hope for the future. Pumpkins, bonfires, and shared meals remind us of a time when abundance was shared and the warmest light was the one made together.

Do consider a stay at Fanesia from our Abruzzo Connections directory, a cooperative hotel and coworking space that offers an affordable base in this bear-smart community.  We highly recommend MOM, the local vegan restaurant, 7 Effe and the agriturismo Il Vergaro for eating!