Brindisi Hosts the Mediterranean Diet Festival: Two Free Days at the Verdi and Nervegna Venues
On November 13 and 14 Brindisi hosts the Mediterranean Diet Festival between the Nuovo Teatro Verdi and Palazzo Granafei-Nervegna, with free entry: talks with doctors and producers, tastings and show cooking.
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Brindisi hosts the Mediterranean Diet Festival on November 13 and 14, between the Nuovo Teatro Verdi and Palazzo Granafei-Nervegna, as part of the programme of "Brindisi, Capital of Culture of Puglia 2026". All events are free to attend. The first day opens on Friday morning with high-school students presenting a report on their own eating habits, followed by talks by a nutritionist biologist and a psychologist; in the afternoon come the ribbon-cutting of the fair and a chef's show cooking, and in the evening a session devoted to health. Another local outlet, Brundisium.net, announced the programme in recent days with a street parade ahead of the opening.
The festival is organised by the City of Brindisi with the Fondazione Nuovo Teatro Verdi, supported by the Puglia Region, in collaboration with the Fondazione Dieta Mediterranea and with the patronage of the Order of Biologists of Puglia and Basilicata: this is the account given by BrindisiReport. The event is part of the programme of "Brindisi, Capital of Culture of Puglia 2026", and takes place in two venues, the Nuovo Teatro Verdi and Palazzo Granafei-Nervegna. All events are free to attend. According to the outlet, for two days the city becomes a meeting place for scholars, doctors, students, producers, associations and citizens.
The first day's programme, Friday November 13, opens at 9.30 at the Nuovo Teatro Verdi with a session on "Patrimonio di vita: la Dieta Mediterranea come modello di salute, cultura e sostenibilità", dedicated to high-school students. It starts with a screening of an official UN and FAO video, then moves to the most concrete part: students from Brindisi schools present a report on young people's eating habits. According to BrindisiReport, it is from those questions that the discussion on food education begins, "starting precisely from the choices of the new generations".
On the scientific side, Elisabetta Cavalcanti, a senior biologist at the Irccs in Castellana Grotte and a nutritionist, speaks on prevention and ultra-processed foods; she is followed by Erika Vignola, a developmental psychologist and family psychotherapist, on the relationship between food and emotions. The session is moderated by Silvia Di Dio, a journalist. In the afternoon, at 17.00, the theatre foyer hosts the presentation of a special philatelic postmark by Poste Italiane for the city's year as Capital of Culture of Puglia, available on visitors' own mail until 19.00. At 18.00 comes the opening ceremony of the Mediterranean Diet Fair, followed by a session on the link between agriculture, food culture and the territory's economic development.
The evening is the most accessible part of the programme. From 19.00 to 22.00 the theatre foyer and forecourt host stands, tastings and the show cooking of Alessio Greco, who offers a journey through local flavours and ingredients. From 19.30 to 20.30 the foyer's talk area hosts a session on prevention and health, with Alessandro Galiano, head of territorial breast care at the Brindisi local health authority, Lucia Bongiorno of the Dragon Boat association and Mary Capodieci, vice-president of Cna Brindisi-Taranto, who brings a testimony on physical activity and prevention. To be clear: this is an announced public session, not a study, and the names are those of the speakers listed by the outlet, with no statements reported.
A final note on the local context: Brundisium.net, on its own portal, in the same hours devotes its home page to the event and to the announcement that went through the city streets, but the day-by-day programme detail reported in this piece comes from BrindisiReport, the only source with the full calendar. There are no figures: the outlet does not say how many people are expected, nor what the organisation costs. Readers who want to follow nutrition with the same measure can start from this piece on wellbeing and travelling alone and from this article on the fair pay agreement.