Ascoli Piceno Culture

Ascoli's culture is organised around its six districts, its patron saint and its food, in that order and with considerable seriousness.

The sestieri

The city is divided into six historic quarters that exist year-round as social institutions with their own halls, seamstresses, drummers and rivalries, and that compete in the summer joust. Membership is inherited. It is not a tourist arrangement.

Sant'Emidio

The patron is venerated throughout Italy as the protector against earthquakes, a role attached to him after the city came through a severe quake in 1703 that levelled much of central Italy. In a province that lost a town in 2016, this is a living devotion rather than folklore.

The olive

Olive all'ascolana — large green olives stoned, stuffed with a meat filling, breaded and fried — are from here, carry a protected designation, and are made properly in perhaps a hundred kitchens in the city. Everywhere else in Italy sells a frozen approximation.

Anisetta

The aniseed liqueur made here since 1870 is drunk in coffee, and the Art Nouveau cafe on Piazza del Popolo that sells it is a listed building.

The wine

The hills between here and the sea grow Rosso Piceno, and the white grapes Pecorino and Passerina, which were nearly abandoned in the 1970s and were brought back by a handful of growers around Offida; both now carry their own protected status. It is one of the few genuine recent successes in the local economy.

Travertine as identity

People here talk about the stone the way other cities talk about a river. Its colour in different light is a standing local subject.