Here are our top picks for things to do in Abruzzo this September, perfect for anyone who enjoys getting out and exploring.
In September, you can enjoy mauve skies at dusk, cooler evenings, and plenty of festivals. The calendar is packed with grape harvests, truffle hunts, patron saint celebrations, and even a surprise heavy metal weekend. Part of the fun is exploring different areas, maybe Teramo one weekend and the Sagittario gorge the next. Whether you’re visiting from Rome, already on holiday, or you live here, there’s a lot to choose from. Check out the events below and filter by type, area, or week to find something that suits you.
September Events: Out and About in Abruzzo
- Sagra delle Lenticchie, Santo Stefano di Sessanio
Up in one of Italy's most beautiful stone villages, perched high on the Campo Imperatore plateau below the Gran Sasso, the tiny local lentil gets its yearly moment of glory. These are the famous lenticchie di Santo Stefano, small, thin skinned and prized by chefs across Italy, and for two days the village's narrow lanes fill with steaming pots, wood smoke and the kind of unhurried mountain hospitality that makes the drive up here worth every hairpin bend. Two hours from Rome, and it feels like a different century.
- Marsicaland, Avezzano
A generous, sprawling showcase of the Marsica's food and farming heritage, filling Avezzano's showground with dozens of local producers from across the old lakebed of the Fucino, once Italy's third largest lake before it was famously drained in the nineteenth century. Go for twenty minutes, leave three hours later with cheese, honey and saffron you didn't know you needed.
- Ai Weiwei's Aftershock, MAXXI L'Aquila
Last chance to catch this exhibition on earthquake, memory and rebuilding, housed inside a palace restored after L'Aquila's own devastating 2009 quake. It's a fitting meeting of art and the city's own story of recovery, and a genuine reason on its own to spend an afternoon in the rebuilt historic centre.
- Performative 2026, MAXXI L'Aquila
Three days of live, boundary pushing performance art in one of the region's most striking contemporary spaces, part of L'Aquila's Capital of Culture programme this year. Come with an open mind, expect to be surprised.
- Il mestiere di amare, Teatro San Filippo, L'Aquila
One evening of theatre titled The Business of Loving, drawn from Cesare Pavese's writing, staged in one of L'Aquila's most atmospheric small venues in the heart of the rebuilt old town. Intimate, literary, quietly moving.
- Garofano Rosso Film Festival, Forme di Massa d'Albe
A week of open air cinema in a tiny hilltop hamlet above the Piana del Fucino, the vast flat plain that was once Italy's third largest lake, with the screen lit up against a backdrop of stars and mountain silhouettes. The festival takes its name, the Red Carnation, from the flower long used as a symbol of resistance and remembrance. Independent and arthouse film finds a genuinely magical setting here, worth the drive alone for the view before the film even starts.
- La Corsa degli Zingari, Pacentro
One of Abruzzo's strangest and most compelling traditions, its name translates as the Barefoot Race of the Gypsies. Young men race barefoot uphill through the steep medieval streets of Pacentro, one of the most beautiful borghi in the region, below the wild slopes of the Maiella. It's a ritual whose roots stretch back centuries, part sporting contest, part pagan survival, part pure village pride, and utterly unlike anything else on this list.
- Cammino della Transumanza, L'Aquila
The symbolic send off for the Transhumance Walk, retracing one of Europe's oldest working routes, the ancient tratturo shepherds once used to move their flocks on foot from the Apennine highs all the way down to the winter pastures of Puglia. There's a film screening the night before departure and a real sense of occasion as walkers set off from L'Aquila's rebuilt historic centre, following a path that's been walked for over two thousand years.
- Tartufestival, Chieti
Chieti's ancient hilltop old town, built on the site of the Roman city of Teate, turns fragrant for a weekend as the season's first white truffles arrive on stalls tucked between genuine Roman ruins. Follow your nose through streets that have smelled of this for centuries.
- Vicoli in Calice, La Civitella, Chieti
An evening wine walk, the name means glasses in the alleyways, through La Civitella, Chieti's oldest and highest quarter, glass in hand, stopping at cellar doors and hidden courtyards most day visitors never find on their own. The views over the Maiella and the Gran Sasso from up here, especially at dusk, are reason enough.
- Notte Gialla, Chieti Scalo
The Yellow Night, a late night street festival that turns the lower, modern half of Chieti into an open air party, part market, part concert, part simple excuse to stay out past midnight. A very different mood from the quiet old town on the hill above.
- Il Dono alla Madonna del Ponte and the Feste di Settembre, Lanciano
Lanciano's biggest week of the year, the September Festivities, built around the Offering to the Madonna of the Bridge, a genuinely emotional blend of religious devotion and full blown civic celebration in one of Abruzzo's oldest and grandest towns, closing with concerts from Ermal Meta and Fabrizio Moro on the final two nights. Expect the whole city, and half the province, to turn out for it.
- FLIC, Festival Lanciano in Contemporanea, Lanciano
A contemporary arts festival that picks up the baton the moment the Feste di Settembre wind down, bringing a sharper, more experimental energy to the same historic streets that were full of processions just days before.
- Festa di San Michele Arcangelo, Vasto
Vasto's patron saint festival closes out the month on the southern Adriatic coast, with processions winding through the elegant old town that gave D'Annunzio some of his finest coastal prose, and the kind of full seafront atmosphere only a coastal patronal feast can produce.
- Fermenti d'Abruzzo, Marina di Pescara
The tail end of a lively craft beer weekend right on Pescara's marina, part of the wider Estatica summer season, with local breweries pouring alongside street food stalls right at the water's edge as the summer crowds start to thin.
- Festa della Madonna delle Grazie, Francavilla al Mare
A warm, community feeling feast for Our Lady of Grace, in one of the coast's most charming small towns just south of Pescara, blending genuine devotion with the last proper burst of seaside summer energy before the season quietens down.
- Pescara Ukulele Festival, Accademia Musicale OSA, Pescara
Two genuinely hands on days for anyone who has ever wanted to actually play the ukulele rather than just watch someone else do it. Small groups, real technique, absolute beginners genuinely welcome, no dry theory, just an afternoon of learning something new by ear. A delightfully unexpected addition to the month.
- Centro Visita del Lupo, Popoli
A last chance this season to visit one of Abruzzo's most important wildlife centres, at the old spa town of Popoli where the Pescara and Sagittario valleys meet, dedicated to the Apennine wolf and its slow, hard won return to these mountains after decades of near extinction.
- Pescara Comix & Games, Montesilvano
A weekend of comics, games and pop culture on the coast just north of Pescara, loud, colourful and unapologetically fun, pulling in families and fans from right across the region.
- Italian Triathlon and Aquathlon Championship, Montesilvano
Elite athletes take on the Jova Beach course in a national championship weekend that turns Montesilvano's seafront into a genuine sporting spectacle, swimmers, cyclists and runners all racing against the Adriatic as a backdrop.
- Diorama Festival, Montesilvano Colle
An intimate arts and culture festival set in Montesilvano Colle, the old hilltop borgo standing above the modern seaside town below, offering a quieter, more reflective counterpoint to the beach crowds just down the hill.
- Sagra dell'Uva, Città Sant'Angelo
One of the coast's most reliable and best loved harvest festivals, the Grape Festival, in a handsome hilltop town with views clear down to the Adriatic, built around a parade of allegorical carts decorated by the town's own contrade and drawn, in the old style, by oxen. Come for the spectacle, stay for the local Montepulciano and Trebbiano poured alongside it.
- L'Eremo di San Bartolomeo pilgrimage, Roccamorice
A steep, atmospheric pilgrimage walk up to a hermitage carved directly into the rock face of the Majella, the great limestone massif locals call the mountain mother, one of the most striking sacred sites anywhere in the region and a proper reward for the climb.
- The Invite, Arca Multiplex, Spoltore
Olivia Wilde's sharp new comedy, with Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton, arrives in Italian cinemas this month straight out of Sundance. Nothing is being advertised yet for an original language screening at Arca, we'll add details here the moment one is confirmed.
- L'Eremo di Santa Colomba pilgrimage, Pagliara di Isola del Gran Sasso
A gentle walking pilgrimage to a hermitage tucked into the foothills of the Gran Sasso, opening the month on a note of quiet devotion, cool mountain air and genuinely lovely scenery, with Italy's highest Apennine peak rising right behind it.
- Festa della Madonna Annunziata, Giulianova
The closing days of Giulianova's late summer feast for the Annunciation, with the town's elegant historic centre and its long sandy seafront both drawn into the festivities, one of the busier resort towns on this stretch of the Teramo coast.
- Sagra della Vongola, Tortoreto
A proper seaside sagra, generous plates of clams served right by the water in the beach town of Tortoreto, closing out a run that's been going since early August. Come hungry, and come prepared to queue a little.
- Festa di San Gabriele, Montorio al Vomano
Now in its thirteenth edition, this lively patronal feast fills Viale Settembrini in Montorio al Vomano with stalls, music and the unmistakable buzz of a town celebrating its own, tucked in the hills below the Gran Sasso's eastern flank.
- Antica Fiera di Teramo, Teramo
A genuinely old fashioned first Sunday market, the name simply means Teramo's Old Fair, in the quietly handsome provincial capital, part antiques, part local produce, set across Piazza Giuseppe Verdi and Piazza Madonna delle Grazie. A pleasant, unhurried way to spend a Sunday morning in a city most visitors drive straight past on their way to the mountains.
- San Gennaro patron feast, Notaresco
Notaresco's patron saint day, quietly dated and dependable, giving this small Teramo hill town its own proper place in the September calendar alongside its livelier neighbours on the coast.
- In The Best Tradition Festival Vol. III, Sporting Club Centro Iride, Martinsicuro
Europe's most unapologetically old school heavy metal festival returns for its third edition in Martinsicuro, right on the Marche border, headlined by American power metal veterans Jag Panzer. Friday brings a warm up show, Saturday the full bill: Hellish Crossfire, Azul Limão, Vigilhunter and Menace. Proof that September in Abruzzo isn't only truffles and processions.
- Tra borghi e memorie, Case Vernesi and Villa Vallucci, Montorio al Vomano
Among Villages and Memories: springs, trails and flavours, two tiny hamlets tucked into the Laga foothills, one walk threading together old paths and the food that's kept these small communities going for generations, far from any tourist trail. Part of the Festival Culturale dei Borghi Rurali della Laga, the Cultural Festival of the Rural Villages of the Laga.
- Innovazione in montagna, Poggio Valle, Torricella Sicura
Innovation in the Mountains, a gastronomic gathering high in the Laga hills, looking at how these small, isolated mountain communities are finding new ways to keep old traditions alive as younger generations move away and back again. Part of the Festival Culturale dei Borghi Rurali della Laga.
- Pascoli e castagneti sotto lo sguardo di S. Michele, Ceraso, Valle Castellana
Pastures and chestnut groves under St Michael's gaze, in one of the most remote corners of the province, right against the border with Lazio and the Marche. A fitting close to the Laga thread, and a proper excuse to see a part of Abruzzo almost nobody visits. Part of the Festival Culturale dei Borghi Rurali della Laga.
- Cantine Aperte in Vendemmia, across Abruzzo
Open Wineries at Harvest Time: every MTV Abruzzo member winery, across all four provinces, throws its doors open through the vendemmia, the grape harvest, from the Colline Teramane in the north to the Trabocchi coast in the south. The single best excuse this autumn to go cellar hopping. The native Cococciola grape doesn't have its own dedicated festival, but it's what's actually in the glass at every stop across Chieti province this month, worth knowing before you order.
- Domenica al Museo
Free entry to state run museums and archaeological sites nationwide, including several of Abruzzo's own, a simple, generous way to spend a Sunday without spending a euro.
- Giornate Europee del Patrimonio
European Heritage Days, a national weekend of extended hours, guided tours and special openings at cultural sites that choose to take part, with some evening openings dropping to a symbolic one euro entry, a good excuse to finally see the place you've been meaning to visit for years.
- A note on the Venice Film Festival
Not an Abruzzo event, but worth flagging: the Mostra del Cinema di Venezia runs through this window, and its arthouse titles are typically the ones that surface in original language screenings at Spoltore's Arca Multiplex a couple of weeks later.
- Regina di Miele, Tornareccio
The Honey Queen, a sweet, small scale celebration of one of the inland hills' quieter specialities, in a tiny Chieti province town that takes its honey seriously enough to give it a whole weekend. Well off the usual sagra circuit, and worth the detour for it.
Author: Sam Dunham
Sam is a freelance SEO content creator and IGCSE Geography and English teacher in Rome. She also runs the Life In Abruzzo Cultural Association, sharing stories and insights about this captivating region. Alongside raising a teenager, Sam hosts guests at her family’s traditional home, the Little House of the Firefly in Abruzzo, offering a warm welcome and insider tips on local culture, food, and hidden gems.
