How to read a sagra

A sagra is a village cooking one thing for four nights on trestle tables, priced for locals. It is better than most restaurants in the region and costs a third as much. It is also close to impossible to plan around, and no guide that tells you otherwise is being straight with you.

The reason is structural. Big fairs like the Expo announce a year out because they sell tickets. A sagra is run by a volunteer committee that confirms dates six to eight weeks ahead, publishes them on a Facebook page and a paper poster in the bar, and never updates the website that a search engine will show you. Anything you read in July about a September sagra is a guess.

So read the pattern, not the date. Spring brings wild boar and frittelle. June is flowers and patronal saints. August is watermelon fairs and wine under the stars. Autumn is grapes, chestnuts, and in November the new oil — a fettunta sagra is a slice of bread, new oil, garlic, and it is one of the best things you will eat here.

What works: ask at your accommodation on arrival, read the posters taped inside the bar and the alimentari, and look at the comune's Facebook page rather than its website. What does not work: arriving on the strength of a listicle. We keep our own dates marked as confirmed or estimated for exactly this reason, and we would rather show you an honest gap than a date we made up.

One rule for when you get there. Pay at the cassa first, take the ticket to the counter, and do not be the person who joins the food queue holding money.