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RARE LOCAL FOOD · VICENZA
The vegetable that found a second home in Japan
A winter specialty from the hills of Creazzo, with the local restaurants that grow it, cook it and still put it on the menu
Broccolo fiolaro is one of Vicenza’s most distinctive winter foods, grown on the hills of Creazzo and harvested through the coldest months. The edible shoots, the fioi, give the vegetable its name. Its story now reaches as far as Japan, but this page is also practical: below you’ll find local restaurants in Creazzo that grow their own crop or build winter menus around it.
Lichinga, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Know before you go
Broccolo fiolaro is a winter crop. December to February is the most useful window for finding it on local menus, with January usually offering the widest choice. Call ahead if eating it is the main reason for your visit.
About
A broccoli from a small hill outside Vicenza now has a second growing season in Japan.
THE STORY + WHERE TO EAT ↓
Japan first came looking for broccolo fiolaro more than twenty years ago, when Fuji Television travelled to Creazzo to film its cultivation. Today Japanese chefs cook it, farms in Saitama and Miyagi grow it, and Japanese seed sellers still identify Creazzo and Vicenza as its place of origin. FOLLOW THE FULL STORY FROM VICENZA TO JAPAN ↓
A FEW THINGS TO KNOW
150,000 heads a year. That was Creazzo’s estimated nineteenth century production, much of it sold in Vicenza.
Ten kilometres to market. Growers once walked from Creazzo to Vicenza bringing baskets suspended from a wooden shoulder pole called a bigòlo.
Broccoli in a crown. As late as the 1960s, fiolaro was sold in sacare, rings of broccoli tied together with willow branches.
WHERE TO EAT BROCCOLO FIOLARO ↓
Japan gives broccolo fiolaro a second home. Creazzo still gives it the first taste. Come between December and February, after the first frosts. January brings the annual festival and the widest concentration of fiolaro menus around town. The latest confirmed festival ran from 16 to 18 January 2026. The programme for winter 2026 to 2027 has not yet been published.
THE JANUARY FESTIVAL
Festa del Broccolo Fiolaro di Creazzo De.Co.
Azienda Agricola Gentilin, Via Sabbioni 9, Creazzo
Pro Loco Creazzo: +39 331 962 8356
Festival reservations, 2026: +39 335 751 8707
The 2026 edition had Friday and Saturday dinners and a Sunday lunch devoted entirely to fiolaro.
BUY IT FROM THE PRODUCERS
FIOI Società Agricola
Via F. Filzi 44/1, Creazzo
Phone +39 0444 522056
The local producers’ company works with the original seed selected by its growers and harvests after the frost according to its production rules. This is the address for buying fiolaro close to its source.
THE GASTRONOMIA
Cucina Tomasi
Via Milano 8, Creazzo
Phone +39 0444 522318
A local prepared food shop rather than a restaurant, useful if you want to take dinner home. In winter its kitchen has included baked pasta with broccolo fiolaro and Asiago among the seasonal dishes.
THE HILL TRATTORIA
Trattoria Pizzeria Bellavista
Via Sant’Ulderico 3/A, Creazzo
Phone +39 0444 520328
Up in the older part of Creazzo, Bellavista grows broccolo fiolaro on its own land and uses it through the winter menu.
THE RESTAURANT AMONG THE FIELDS
Trattoria Cortese
Via Rivella 21, Creazzo
Phone +39 0444 520457
Rivella is one of Creazzo’s traditional fiolaro growing areas. Cortese grows its own crop and works it through winter dishes ranging from first courses to meat.
GOOD TO KNOW
Broccolo fiolaro is a winter vegetable. December to February is the useful window, with January offering the widest concentration of local menus.