Food & drink · Benevento

Locanda Scialapopolo & Liquore Strega

Benevento's food identity is as layered as its archaeology: handmade pasta, slow-cooked ragù, ancient nougat, and a golden herb liqueur that has been distilled here since 1860. One trattoria and one legendary bottle sum it all up perfectly.

Eat Like a Beneventano

Head to Locanda Scialapopolo for the most honest introduction to local cooking: the kitchen turns out cardone — a rich festive soup of chicken broth, cardoons, tiny veal meatballs, and egg stracciatella — alongside cicatielli with Benevento ragù and cazzarielli in cassuola, small flour-and-water pasta dumplings served with tomato sauce or black-eyed peas. Prices are fair and the atmosphere is unaffectedly local.

For an aperitivo spread, seek out soppressata beneventana — a cured pork salami seasoned with garlic, chilli, and herbs — paired with local caciocavallo cheese, honey, and a glass of Falanghina del Sannio DOC, the mineral, floral white wine of the surrounding hills.

Liquore Strega: The Witch's Brew

No visit to Benevento is complete without tasting Liquore Strega, produced since 1860 by the Alberti family using a secret recipe of seventy herbs and spices from around the world. The vivid yellow liqueur is named after the janare — the witches of Benevento — and is the sponsor of Italy's most prestigious literary prize, the Premio Strega, awarded annually in Rome.

Pick up a bottle at the historic Caffè Strega on Corso Garibaldi, which also serves strega-spiked coffee and pastries. For a structured tasting experience, several guided walking tours of the city include a Strega tasting as part of the itinerary.