Every year in the town of Ladispoli, there will be a Sagra del Carciofo (Artichoke Festival) and the town will be bustling with activities.
Cart and I arrived here by car and it took us about an hour to reach here. But I think that the next time that we visit here for this festival, we should take the train instead as trying to search for parking is like trying to win the lottery.
Anyway, there are loads of things to see and do here. One of them is eating at participating restaurants that does set menus including starters, first course and second course focusing on artichokes.
Cart and I stopped at this trattoria called the La Locanda di Guido e Massi where I had such a delicious fish dish which I would love to eat again (check it out in the video at the end of this post)
After lunch, we took a walk outside.
There were many open markets ranging from clothes, to even pets! Of course there were plentiful of artichokes and artichoke related items for sale. There were also a lot of stalls set up focusing on local Italian food and produce and there were benches all around for people to eat and enjoy their food.
Looks like oktoberfest doesn’t it? Where everyone eat, drink and be merry. Cart and I were curious to give the stalls a try, but at that point of time, we were still very full from our meal at the trattoria.
For me, one of the highlights was seeing displays made from artichokes. Some where extremely grand and impressive! I can only imagine the time taken as well as the humanly effort put in making it!
Anyway, one thing I thought was kind of missing. How come there were no Miss Artichoke contest? In harvest festivals there will always be young, talented women in cute costumes to showcase the best crop. Kind of like Virginia here in the best sheep contest.
Would be interesting yeah? 
In anycase, do watch my video of the artichoke festival. It’s worth it, with the drama and action! And stay till the end to check out the surprise ending 
From your post:
“How come there were no Miss Artichoke contest?”
It is in poor taste to invent a contest just so you can win it. 😛
Regards,
Carl
Haha! But I wouldn’t join in … I’m not from Ladispoli. Plus I’m not a Miss anymore 😛
Too bad, I missed out being crowned Miss Artichoke 2011 and have that honor under my belt :P:P
Ooh, kinky!
Hahaha … I see that almost everywhere, especially in parks … in fact, I remember being in Gianicolo in the evening and there were people making out and then suddenly a whole busload of tourists stopped by and snapped pics with flash and all and totally killed the mood.
Hey, it sure looks like fun and so much fuss over a vegetable! I’m not really an artichoke fan and I often wonder why it has come to be known as the king of vegetables even though it isn’t really that tasty (compared to say Durian as the king of fruits… LOL).
Do the artichokes in Italy taste any different from those here?
But in Singapore we have fruit festivals too, like searching and eating the best durians 🙂 And there are so many items made of durian like durian cake, durian puff, durian sweets …
I’m not sure if artichokes really are considered the king of vegetables here and to be honest, I’ve never had artichokes while in Singapore ever! So I can’t compare :