Photo: Wikimedia Commons
In the hamlet of Zabatta, within the Vesuvius National Park, 'ceveze' is the local dialect word for gelse — mulberries — nicknamed the mountain's 'black gold' for the outsized role they once played in the rural economy: a single good harvest could cover a daughter's dowry. Farmers would carry the fruit to Capri, Ischia, and Sorrento, serving it to tourists on a leaf — baskets that left full in the morning always returned empty by evening. Now in its 4th edition, the festival mixes music, theatre, and a footrace with tastings of the fruit and old farming-world stories.
