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It is not just a vegetable. In Vatolla, the onion is genetic memory, farming culture, a sacred symbol, and community redemption. It is the red thread that connects the past and present, hands that sow and minds that tell stories, women and men who still find a sense of identity in the land.
We are in the heart of the Cilento National Park, Vallo di Diano and Alburni, and Vatolla is a fraction of Perdifumo, a small municipality nestled among hills and landscapes that speak of the Mediterranean.
In this ancient and quiet corner of Campania, a sweet and unmistakable onion has been grown for centuries, symbolizing extraordinary biodiversity.
It is no coincidence that Giambattista Vico lived in Vatolla for nine years, between 1686 and 1695. The Neapolitan philosopher loved this place and called it a "beautiful site and perfect air." A praise that seems even more relevant today, because Vatolla has remained a place of the soul, where time flows slowly and the balance between man and nature remains intact.
The seeds of the Vatolla onion arrived in Cilento around the year One Thousand, probably from Afghanistan, brought by Basilian monks fleeing religious persecution. In this corner of the South, they found fertile land and ideal conditions to grow. For centuries, these seeds have been passed down from generation to generation, preserving a unique genetic heritage.
Today, the onion is an emblem of local biodiversity: sweet, not too pungent, delicate in aroma, it is perfect to enjoy raw in salads or in the classic frittata with cacioricotta. Beyond its taste, it is also healthy: it has diuretic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties, and it is an ally of the cardiovascular system. Not surprisingly, it is one of the symbolic foods of the Mediterranean Diet, which originated right in these lands.
The onion, in Vatolla, is also devotion.
It is linked to the cult of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, celebrated every year in July. It is not just an agricultural product: it is collective memory, food that unites, a daily gesture, a story of women and men who resist in the name of the land and tradition.
It is from these values that the Vatolla Onion Festival is born, an event that brings together cuisine, popular culture, local economy, and a sense of community. It is a grassroots project, organized by the Vatolla Onion Association, led by Angela Marzucca, which gathers producers and enhances an identity product of Cilento.
In the village, the 10th gastronomic and cultural event is celebrated, which started in July and will continue on August 9, 10, and 23.
"We want to rediscover the meaning of our history by prioritizing popular culture, the rediscovery of biodiversity, and the desire to tell the story of this beautiful and mistreated land, recovering poetry, beauty, and the intense strength of memory," says President Marzucca.
During the festival, the onion takes center stage: it is tasted in a thousand forms, from street food to the traditional menu, and it wins over the little ones as well. But above all, it gives voice to a village that wants to exist, resist, and tell its story through what it cultivates, cooks, and shares.
In Vatolla, every onion is a piece of oral history, every dish a form of rural poetry, every festival an act of cultural resistance. Here, taste has deep roots. And it continues to make identity flourish.
