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FOOD, FAITH & FOLKLORE · VICENZA
The Vicenza food once eaten to ward off snake bites
An Ascension Day tradition, with producer and festival contacts in Vicenza, Italy.
In the farming villages north of Vicenza, Italy, a pork sausage containing cured tongue was eaten on Ascension Day in the belief that it protected field workers from snakebites. Known as bondola col lengual, it is seasoned with pepper, cinnamon and cloves and cooked in water. The producer’s address and festival contacts below are useful for arranging a purchase or asking about opportunities to taste this local speciality.
PABLO GONZALEZ, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
About
One of Vicenza’s most distinctive food traditions survives in Torrebelvicino, in Val Leogra. Bondola col lengual is a large spiced pork sausage with cured pork tongue inside. It was traditionally eaten on Ascension Day because local farming families believed the tongue protected people working in the fields from snake bites. Torrebelvicino is in Val Leogra, northern Vicenza, on the route towards Monte Pasubio and the Piccole Dolomiti. Close to the village, Ponte delle Capre crosses the Leogra, while a geological and mineral trail follows former mining areas and ancient rock formations.
READ THE SNAKE BITE STORY ↓
WHERE TO EAT AND BUY BONDOLA COL LENGUAL ↓
FOR THE LOCAL PRODUCER
Salumificio Franco Verona Verona
Via Galileo Galilei 56, Torrebelvicino, Vicenza
Phone +39 0445 660049
Listed as the bondola producer in the local De.Co. food catalogue, this business dates its history to 1947. Contact it specifically about bondola col lengual, the preparation containing cured pork tongue, and ask about production dates, purchasing arrangements and cooking instructions
FOR THE SPRING FOOD FESTIVAL
Sagra/Feast della Bondola
Via Fogazzaro, Torrebelvicino, Vicenza
Usually held in May around Ascension/ email: info@sagradellabondola.com
The festival is devoted to the town’s traditional bondola. The 2026 edition took place on 8, 9 and 10 May and 15, 16 and 17 May. Contact the organisers for confirmed 2027 dates and ask whether the tongue version will be served.
FOR A CASUAL LOCAL DINNER
Pizzeria Val Leogra
Piazza Aldo Moro 1, Torrebelvicino, Vicenza
Phone +39 0445 661273
THE SNAKE BITE STORY
Bondola resembles an oversized cotechino, made with pork meat and rind seasoned with pepper, cinnamon and cloves, traditionally packed into a pig or calf bladder. The bladder slowed drying and helped the sausage keep longer.
Lengual means tongue in the local dialect. In Bondola col lengual, cured pork tongue is placed inside the sausage. Torrebelvicino traditionally ate it on Ascension Day in May, when snakes became active again in the countryside. Eating the tongue was believed to protect people working in the fields from snake bites, an old apotropaic food custom intended to ward off danger.
The tradition survives at the May Sagra della Bondola, where recent editions have served Bondola with polenta, sauerkraut and beans, alongside the wonderfully contemporary Mec Bond, a Bondola and sauerkraut sandwich.
GOOD TO KNOW
Bondola and Bondola col lengual are not exactly the same thing. The ordinary Bondola is easier to find. The rare version contains pork tongue and is historically linked to Ascension Day, so May gives you by far the best chance of finding the real thing.