What is Amatrice known for?

Sugo all'amatriciana, guanciale and pecorino and pepper with tomato added in the nineteenth century, the dish that carries the town's name. A 6.2 magnitude earthquake at 3:36 in the morning killed 295 people in the cratere and leveled most of the centro storico. Sandstone Apennine massif above town, part of the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park, with beech and silver fir at altitude.

When is the best time to visit Amatrice?

May–Oct. May through October is the season for Amatrice. The Laga snow clears by late May; June and September are dry and clear, with the Pizzo di Sevo visible from the temporary square. July and August are the festival months: the Sagra degli Spaghetti all'Amatriciana, run since 1967 and resumed in 2018, brings the town back to its food and its name. November through April is hard at 955 meters, with snow on the Laga and most reconstruction sites paused. The earthquake anniversary on 24 August is a working day of remembrance, not a tourist event.

Amatrice is a comune in the province of Rieti, Lazio region of Italy, about 87 kilometers from Terni.

How do I get to Amatrice?

From Terni, Amatrice is roughly 87 km by road.

Lazio · Rieti

Amatrice

A 955-meter Apennine town leveled by the 24 August 2016 earthquake, slowly rebuilding the streets that gave amatriciana its name.

Known for

AMATRICIANA
Sugo all'amatriciana, guanciale and pecorino and pepper with tomato added in the nineteenth century, the dish that carries the town's name.
24 AUGUST 2016
A 6.2 magnitude earthquake at 3:36 in the morning killed 295 people in the cratere and leveled most of the centro storico.
MONTI DELLA LAGA
Sandstone Apennine massif above town, part of the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park, with beech and silver fir at altitude.
PROSCIUTTO AMATRICIANO
The commune lies inside the Prosciutto Amatriciano IGP production zone.

When to visit

Best · May–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

The festa: Maria, domenica successiva all'Ascensione

Why come

Amatrice sits on a saddle where Lazio runs into Abruzzo and the Marche, the range rising directly above the roofs. The Corso Umberto I and the Piazza Sagnotti formed the spine of the centro storico, the two anchored by the tower at their crossing and by the church nearby; both collapsed almost completely on 24 August 2016. Two hundred and ninety-five people died in the cratere, most of them here.

The town that survived gave its name to sugo all'amatriciana, guanciale, pecorino, pepper, and, since the nineteenth century, tomato. The Sagra degli Spaghetti all'Amatriciana, run since 1967, returned in 2018 in the temporary food court Area Food, held among the ruins while reconstruction went on around it. Reconstruction continues below; the peaks above are unchanged. The dish carried the name outward long before the earthquake made the name known for a different reason, and the two facts now sit side by side in anyone's memory of the place.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Amatrice’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

What to see

Torre Civica
Fourteenth-century civic tower at the crossing of Via Roma and Corso Umberto. Severed at the bell chamber in 2016, it stood under scaffolding for six years; consolidation began in August 2022 and the bell stage was finished in 2023.
Chiesa di Sant'Agostino
Fourteenth-century church with a rose window heightened in the twentieth century. It was the first building to fall in 2016 and is the primary reconstruction priority in the centro storico.
Monti della Laga
Sandstone Apennine range above town, sheltering rare relict beech and silver fir forest, inside the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park.
Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga
1,413 square kilometers of protected Apennine, the second-largest national park in mainland Italy, with Amatrice on its northern edge.

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Signature dish

Spaghetti all'AmatricianaPasta

Guanciale, pecorino romano and tomato; the town gave the dish its name long before Rome made it famous.

See every town in our catalogue with a dish of its own.

Through the year

What happens here

Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.

Sagra degli Spaghetti all'Amatricianafood festival
usually held in August. RomaPop - Sagre, mercatini e fiere a Roma e nel Lazio

Living here

Population 2,251
Off the beaten pathi
Pharmacy in town
High school within a 30-minute drive
Nearest airport Ancona / Pescara, 2 h 17 min drive
Regional capital Roma, 2 h 10 min drive

Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

Recognised as

The numbers

Elevation: 955 m
Population: 2,251
Surface area: 174.4 km²

On the map

Google Maps Apple Maps Directions from Terni

These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

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