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SPRING FOOD · VICENZA
Where to eat one of Vicenza’s rarest spring foods
Sweet peas grown on limestone terraces, a short April and May season, and the local restaurants that still build dishes around them
Bisi di Lumignano are one of Vicenza’s most seasonal foods, small, sweet peas grown on the limestone terraces of the Berici Hills and harvested for only a few weeks in spring. They appear in risi e bisi, pasta, flans, stews and festival dishes, and this guide also gives you the local addresses where you can still eat or buy them during the season.
Claudio Gioseffi, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Know before you go
Fresh Bisi di Lumignano have a short season. Late April through May gives the best chance of finding them freshly harvested and on local menus. If you are travelling specifically for the peas, call restaurants ahead.
About
Lumignano, in the Berici Hills south of Vicenza, is one of the places where the landscape directly affects what ends up on the table. The village stands below a limestone cliff whose south east exposure stores heat from the sun, creating a warmer local climate that brings the pea harvest forward by several weeks. This is where Bisi di Lumignano, one of Vicenza’s best known spring foods, are grown on masiere, small stone terraces cut into the hillside, where soil, tools and produce were traditionally moved by hand. Pea cultivation here is traditionally linked to Benedictine monks working in the Berici Hills during the Middle Ages. Over centuries, Lumignano became so closely associated with peas that spring harvests travelled from the Vicenza countryside towards Venice, where local accounts connect them with risi e bisi served for Saint Mark’s Day on 25 April. In 1931 the Touring Club Italiano described the peas as “piccoli e dolcissimi”, small and very sweet. Today they remain one of the seasonal foods to look for in Vicenza between late April and May.
THE STORY + WHERE TO EAT THEM ↓
THE PEAS GET EVERYWHERE
Risi e bisi remains the classic, with a texture somewhere between risotto and soup, but Lumignano does considerably more with its spring crop. The local festival serves peas with lasagne, cuttlefish, pork, stew, cotechino style sausage and cheese. Vicenza also has an older combination worth looking for, risi, bisi e oca, rice and peas enriched with preserved goose.
EAT THEM, THEN LOOK UP
The same limestone that warms Lumignano’s pea terraces rises almost vertically behind the village. Climbers know the walls particularly well, the Sotto l’Eremo sector alone has more than 60 routes. Higher on the rock, the Eremo di San Cassiano incorporates remains of an early medieval church, with rock cut burials still visible inside. The hermitage is generally opened to visitors on the first Sunday of the month.
WHERE TO EAT AND BUY BISI DI LUMIGNANO
FOR A TRADITIONAL COLLI BERICI LUNCH
Antica Trattoria Al Sole
Via Fontana Fozze 2, Castegnero, Vicenza
Phone +39 0444 730211
The Accademia Italiana della Cucina records dishes including flan made with Bisi di Lumignano and young Asiago cheese, and fettuccine with the local peas. The menu changes with the season, so late April and May are the best months to ask for them.
FOR A FIFTH GENERATION TRATTORIA
Trattoria Al Volto
Via Volto 39, Costozza di Longare, Vicenza
Phone +39 0444 555663
A historic family trattoria in the Berici Hills, now in its fifth generation. It is among the local restaurants connected with Bisi di Lumignano. The kitchen follows the agricultural calendar, so call ahead if the peas are the main reason for your visit.
BUY THEM DIRECTLY FROM A LOCAL FARM
Azienda Agricola Carlan Agnese
Via Priare Vecchie, Longare, Vicenza
Phone +39 349 5652901
An organic farm selling Bisi di Lumignano De.Co. during the spring harvest. This is one of the most direct ways to buy the peas close to where they are grown.
FOR THE FULL MAY MENU
Sagra dei Bisi di Lumignano
Lumignano di Longare, Vicenza
Usually held in May
The annual festival is the easiest time to try Bisi di Lumignano in several local preparations. Recent menus have included risi e bisi, lasagne with peas, cuttlefish and peas, pork with peas, stew with peas and local cheese with peas.