Norcia

Norcia's butchers were known across Italy for curing pork, and the word norcineria still means a pork butcher's shop anywhere in the country, while norcino means the trade itself. Cold winters and mountain air suited curing, and the shops sell prosciutto, capocollo, sausages and the whole-loin lonza, hung in windows alongside wild boar. Black truffles from the surrounding Valnerina and Sibillini are the other trade, with a fair in late February. Norcia is also Benedict's birthplace. The town was badly damaged by earthquakes in 2016, when the basilica of St Benedict collapsed; the basilica's reconstruction, begun in December 2021 with the original materials, was completed on 30 October 2025, nine years to the day after the collapse, so check how far rebuilding elsewhere in the centre has come.

History

Ancient Nursia was a city of the Sabines, close to the land of the Umbrians, and its people became Roman citizens around the mid-3rd century BC, gaining full rights only after the Social War. Virgil called it frigida Nursia, "cold Nursia", and its pork and wild boar sausages and hams are so well known that such products are called norcineria in Italian (Wikipedia, Norcia).

Highlights

• The norcinerie - pork butchers whose trade name became a common word.
• The black truffles - gathered in the surrounding mountains, with a February fair.
• The walls - the town's circuit around a compact centre.
• The rebuilding - reconstruction after the 2016 earthquakes, with the basilica of St Benedict completed in October 2025.

When to go

May to October; the black truffle fair is in late February. Winters are cold at this altitude. Check what is open, as reconstruction affects the centre.

Good to know

The basilica of St Benedict is rebuilt - its reconstruction was completed on 30 October 2025 - but the 2016 earthquakes damaged much of the historic centre, so expect scaffolding and check what is open. Some shops have operated from temporary structures.

Nearby

Castelluccio lies above; the Valnerina runs west.