Volterra AD 1398: Inside Tuscany's Medieval Festival
We went to Volterra's AD 1398 festival in 2017, right after we moved to Italy. Dylan was nine. It was one of the first big Italian festivals we experienced as residents instead of tourists, and it set a pretty high bar for every festival we've been to since.
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What AD 1398 Actually Is
AD 1398 is Volterra's annual recreation of the town as it existed in the year 1398, a full medieval commune brought back for two weekends every August. It's not a parade you watch from the sidelines. Knights, flag-wavers, crossbowmen, monks, and merchants fill the streets and squares in costume, craftspeople set up demonstration stalls the way they would have worked centuries ago, and the whole town swaps over to a version of itself with almost no visible modern infrastructure. Cars are gone, shopfronts are covered, and the only real giveaway is the crowd of visitors in regular clothes.
Is AD 1398 Worth Visiting?
Yes, and it's worth building a trip around if the dates line up. If you've been to a Renaissance fair in the US or a medieval festival elsewhere in Europe, AD 1398 feels completely different. Nobody built a temporary village outside town, Volterra transforms its own historic center for real. Cars disappear, modern shopfronts get covered, and thousands of people, performers and vendors both, stay in character for the entire weekend. It doesn't feel staged the way some of these events can.
We've been to a lot of festivals in Italy over the years, and this is still one of the most memorable, not because it's flashy, but because the whole town commits to it. One honest caveat: the main square gets crowded and hot during the day, so if standing in an August crowd isn't your thing, lean toward evening and the night parade instead, calmer and just as atmospheric.
When It Happens
The festival runs the second and third Sundays of August, though the town builds up to it in the days before, so plan on more than just the Sunday if you want the full atmosphere. Dates shift slightly year to year, so check Volterra's official tourism site before you book anything. We arrived the evening before it started. Volterra was already stirring: musicians rehearsing in the street outside our hotel, stalls half set up for the next morning.
The Currency, and What It's Actually Like to Use
Once you're inside, regular euros mostly stop working. You trade them for a medieval coin called the Grosso at an exchange office near the entrance, and that's what you use to pay for food, drinks, and whatever the artisan stalls are selling. We still have a handful of the coins. It's a small thing, but handing over a coin that isn't a euro for a bowl of soup does something to how the day feels, more like you're actually inside 1398 instead of just walking through a costume party.
What There Is for Kids to Do
This is where AD 1398 earns its reputation as a festival, not a museum. Dylan was nine when we went, and he had a genuinely great time, not the kind of forced-fun day you sometimes get dragging a kid through a historic town.
The two things he still talks about are the cage and the salt.
Right in the main square, there's a hooded, costumed figure operating a suspended iron cage, and kids can climb in for a few minutes while the figure locks it and hoists it up. It sounds like it should be unsettling, and it kind of is, but Dylan loved it. He was laughing the whole time.
Nearby, there's a stall called the Bottega del Sale, the salt shop, where a costumed vendor lets kids grind salt by hand using a mortar and pestle the way it would have been done centuries ago. Dylan did the whole process start to finish and got to keep the bag of salt he made. We still have it, almost ten years later.
There was also an archery station set up near a small camp of pitched tents just outside the main square, with someone in costume teaching kids the basics using real bows and a padded target. Dylan tried it more than once. Add in a calligraphy table where kids can practice writing with a quill, and a spot where you can attempt walking on wooden stilts, and there's enough here to fill a full afternoon without a single screen involved.
Food and the Market Stalls
The food leans rustic on purpose. We had a simple bean soup served in ceramic bowls you keep afterward, and the wine comes in cups you also walk away with. Beyond that, the market stalls sell cheese, bread, pastries, and fruit, and there's usually a demonstration happening somewhere nearby. We watched someone hand-pressing cheese at one stall while Dylan was off at the salt station. There are games and small performances scattered through the day too, including a flag-throwing display in the main square that draws a real crowd.
Flowers, Costumes, and the Rest of the Atmosphere
A lot of what makes AD 1398 work is the density of detail. There's a bronze olive tree sculpture set against Volterra's black-and-white striped cathedral facade. Monks in brown robes walk through the crowd. Women get flower crowns made at one of the stalls, Lisa got hers made that day and kept it. It's the kind of festival where the background details end up mattering as much as the main event.
The Night Parade
Once it gets dark, the festival shifts into something different. Drummers lead a torchlit procession through Volterra's narrow stone streets, and the crowd follows along past buildings lit only by lamps and firelight. It's quieter than the daytime market chaos, and it's the part of the day that actually feels the most like stepping backward in time. By that point Dylan was worn out, which is honestly part of the experience too.
Where to Stay
We stayed at Hotel Casolare Le Terre Rosse, a few minutes outside town, which worked well for going back and forth between the festival grounds and somewhere quiet to sleep. If you want to catch the night parade without a long drive back afterward, staying just outside the walls like this is worth it.
Know Before You Go
When to visit: The festival runs the second and third Sundays of August. Dates shift slightly year to year, so check Volterra's official site before booking. Get there the evening before if you can, the town starts coming alive early.
What to bring: Cash to exchange for Grossi at the entrance, comfortable shoes for cobblestones, and patience for crowds during the day.
How long you'll need: One full day. Stay into the evening if you want to experience the torchlit parade.
What to book ahead: A hotel outside the walls, early. Rooms near the festival fill up fast.
Worth knowing: For everything else about visiting Volterra, parking, trains, what else to see in town, check our full Volterra Travel Guide.
Planning More Tuscany Travel
We'll be adding more from our time in Tuscany soon. In the meantime, check out our Tuscany Travel Guide for everything we've covered in the region so far.
