📜 History · 1950 / IGP 2011
Porchetta di Ariccia: Rome's roast-pork roll
The hill town outside Rome that made porchetta famous, and the festival that started in 1950.
Porchetta is a whole pig, boned, rolled around garlic, rosemary, pepper and wild fennel, tied and slow-roasted until the skin crackles. Many towns in central Italy make it, but Ariccia, in the Castelli Romani hills south-east of Rome, is the one most linked to it. Roman noble families used to spend their summers and hunting seasons there.
The modern legend began in 1950, when Ariccia's porchettari (porchetta makers) held the first Sagra della Porchetta, a festival to celebrate their product. It still takes place every September; the 73rd edition ran from 4 to 6 September 2026. In 2011 the European Union granted Porchetta di Ariccia IGP status, with rules covering everything from the pigs used to how they are seasoned, tied and cooked.
Served at room temperature in a crusty roll, porchetta is one of the great sandwiches of Lazio. In the old fraschette (rustic wine taverns) of the Castelli Romani it comes with a jug of local white wine.
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