FESTIVAL TRAMONTANA ABRUZZO TOSCANA 2026: CAMMINI
Il canto «a braccio» – themed dinner and party
Azienda agricola Carpa la terra
Garrano Alto (Teramo), Italy
Thursday 5 November 2026, 20:00
This is an initiative of La Leggera, Bambun and LEM Italia as part of the “Creative Europe Tramontana IV” project.
The Italian edition of the Tramontana Festival, «Soglie | Cammini | Passaggi», runs from 24 October to 7 November 2026 in Tuscany and Abruzzo. Thursday 5 November brings two linked events of «CAMMINI» (Paths), its Abruzzo stage: a book presentation in Teramo in the afternoon and an evening of «canto a braccio» in Garrano Alto.
The evening of 5 November continues at the Azienda agricola Carpa la terra in Garrano Alto with a dinner devoted to «canto a braccio», the improvised sung poetry of the transhumant shepherds of central Italy, still practised in the mountains where the provinces of L’Aquila and Rieti meet. The shepherd-poets, self-taught and steeped in the great epic poems from Homer to Ariosto, Tasso and Dante, composed their verses on the spot in ottava rima, quatrains and tercets, each improviser taking up the ending of the previous stanza to build a dialogue or contest in verse. Depopulation and the recent earthquakes have made the tradition fragile, but it lives on in the poetry contests held across the area.
The poets Giampiero Giamogante, Francesco Marconi and Marcello Patrizi perform with Francesco D’Elena on the ciaramelle, the «zampogna zoppa» that traditionally accompanied the poets’ serenades to the bride in the upper Sabina and around Montereale. The anthropologists Roberta Tucci and Giovanni Kezich accompany the evening.
Information and booking: 339 2863746