The Cherry Festival in Roseto Capo Spulico

The name, Roseto Capo Spulico, leaves no doubt: we are in an ancient village in the province of Cosenza overlooking the Ionian Sea, on the coast of which lies one of the most important Frederician castles in Calabria, whose history is traditionally linked to the cultivation of roses.

An ancient and fragrant art to which is added another highly prized crop, that of cherries. The Roseto Capo Spulico Cherry, turgid and sweet, has been crowned the "Most Beautiful Cherry in Italy" and the village itself is known as the Village of Roses and Cherries.

If the cultivation of roses recalls the splendours of Magna Graecia, when, according to legend, the petals were used to fill the pillows of sybarite princesses, the cultivation of cherries in Roseto has more recent but no less precious origins.

The De.Co. Roseto Cherry (Municipal Designation of Origin) ranks among the excellences of Calabrian agri-foodstuffs as a product with unique organoleptic properties. In addition to officially being the "most beautiful Cherry in Italy", the "red cherry", symbol of Roseto, boasts a number of peculiarities that make it unmistakable: the Roseto cherry tree grows further down the valley than the traditional altitude and, thanks to the constant sea breeze, enjoys an optimal microclimate, which influences the ripening of the Roseto cherry, bringing it forward from the flowering season.

A real delicacy, in short! Delicious to the palate and seductive to the eye, the Roseto Cherry is the undisputed queen of the Calabrian spring and it is at its best between May and June, the ideal months to enjoy it on a gastronomic trip.

The best time to taste the Roseto Capo Spulico De.CO. Cherry? During the Cherry Festival, which takes place every year at harvest time and which represents a unique opportunity to taste the precious fruit in all its forms, from savoury to sweet.

In Roseto, the cherry is queen of the table. It is served in restaurants in combination with risottos and fresh pasta (such as the delicious Trofie with seafood and cherries), jams to go with meat, fish and cheese dishes, desserts, granitas, fruit juices and spirits.

The Cherry Festival, which also evokes the ancient Medieval Primizie Festival, also includes a historical parade, as well as the tasting and, of course, the sale of Roseto cherries.

Speaking of the Middle Ages, Roseto Capo Spulico is the right place for all fans of Emperor Frederick II of Swabia, otherwise known as Stupor Mundi for his enlightened cultural policies, who had one of his mysterious castles erected here.

The Castle of Roseto Capo Spulico (Castrum Petrae Roseti, the "Castle of the Roseto Stone") is one of the Frederick's castles in Calabria that you absolutely must know. Although now privately owned, its location overlooking the sea and its structure make it one of the most interesting medieval fortresses in the region.

If the village, in a perched and strategic position, looks out over the Gulf of Taranto to ward off the Saracen threat that came from the sea at that time, the castle on the shore seems to have had a function that was anything but defensive, fuelling the usual legends that revolve around Frederick's buildings (in this case, it is said to have been one of the secret places where the Holy Shroud was kept).

At its foot is the so-called Fungo del Castello, or the Scoglio Incudine, whose nicknames recall the unmistakable shape of the small marine monolith, a naturalistic symbol of Roseto.