Dì de la Bresaola: Italian Meat Festival in Chiavenna, Italy

Over the years I've been fortunate enough to visit my share of festivals. However, I've yet to attend one that is purely focused on one particular food item. That all changed while visiting the town of Chiavenna, Italy. We happened to be in town during Dì de la Bresaola. This Italian meat festival centered around Bresaola - a meat we found kind of similar to prosciutto. Typically served as an antipasto, this air-dried salted beef is usually aged two to three months before becoming dark red and hard enough to serve.
Wandering around the streets before lunch we hit all 14 stands along the circuit grabbing a small sample from every single table.. It felt as though we were having our appetizer a little bit early ;)
The festival itself had a lot more going on than just meat tastings. Marching bands and vendors selling all kinds of trinkets vied for the moving crowds attention. Overall, we had a great time and it was wonderful that the weather improved significantly as the day went on. If you're in Chiavenna in the fall try to time your visit around this festival. It's the kind of unique quirky experience you'll surely never forget.
Dì de la Bresaola: Italian Meat Festival in Chiavenna, Italy Travel Video Transcript:
Good morning from Chiavenna. It is a bit of a rainy morning but we are still very excited to be here and out exploring because there is a festival taking place here. Today is the day of the Bresaola and that means that we are celebrating a deli meat. And there is lots of different stands that have been setup across the town. So you can just wander around and sample some deli meats. So we're going to be trying lots of food today. It's very exciting. And just to give you a bit of background information, Bresaola is kind of similar to prosciutto but it is made from beef and it has very little fat. So that is coming up in this video.
So this is a look at the map of Chiavenna and it shows where are the Bresaola tastings are going to be taking place. And there is fourteen different spots across the town, so I think we're going to be eating quite a bit.
Want to try some? Later. Mmmm. That's really good. Really tasty.
We are looking for more meat. Carnivores today!
There is only bread available right now so everyone is waiting patiently while they slice more Bresaola.
I've got some more Bresaola. I think by the end of the day we're going to be suffering from meat sweats. It's so good. It's so good, I wish I knew how to describe this properly but it is just good. You need to come to Italy and try it. What else can I say.
This one here appears to be a bit of a darker meat than we've tried before. And I'm pairing it with some bread. One big bite. Yeah, that's awesome.
More bresaola guys. You know lunchtime is about an hour away and I feel like I'm just walking around town eating my appetizer. It's pretty nice.
First impressions so far? So what I've been noticing as we've been wandering around is that there is a lot of different stands open selling all kinds of different things. As you can see behind me there is rugs being sold.
Oh, so it is not just about the food. Nope.
So the mood here is very happy, very jovial. There are lots of different bands playing at every square around town. I just feel bad for the puppies. Some people are walking around with their dogs and they just look a little frightened and startled.
Okay, and this meat appears to be a bit lighter than the last one I tried. Again, I have the same dark bread.
It is so good I can see why they have a whole festival just based on meat.
So that is a wrap for us from the festival. I don't think either of us has ever been to a festival that is centered around just one particular food item. But it was really cool, a little bit quirky and definitely one of the more interesting things we did while in Italy. But not for vegetarians. Definitely not.
This is part of our Travel in Italy series. We're making a series of videos showcasing Italian culture, Italian arts, Italian foods, Italian religion, Italian cuisine and Italian people.
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All photos and video taken by Samuel Jeffery (Nomadic Samuel) and Audrey Bergner (That Backpacker).
Music in this video courtesy of Audio Network