Umbria & Le Marche

A family osteria on the main piazza of Montone, the tiny walled hilltop town (1,600+ people) where Sir Terence Conran kept a house and the Umbria Film Festival has run since 1997. Order tagliatelle al tartufo nero in autumn (shavings, butter, no sauce; the truffle carries it) or cinghiale alla cacciatora the rest of the year, with a glass of local Sagrantino. Sit outside under the wisteria if the weather allows.

The Assisi restaurant people who live there actually use, a few minutes from the Piazza del Comune: Pallotta family since the early 1900s, vaulted stone room, handwritten chalkboard menu, not the one the tour buses pull up to. Stringozzi (the hand-rolled Umbrian fat-shoelace pasta) with black truffle in season; piccione with juniper and sage the rest of the year, paired with the short, entirely Umbrian wine list. Reservation needed for both lunch and dinner.

A cave-walled trattoria three minutes from Orvieto's duomo on Via Cipriano Manente, family-run since the 1960s; the one-page menu, the truffle pasta and the pigeon are why this is where you send out-of-towners. Umbrichelli (thick Umbrian spaghetti) with summer or winter truffle, the 'tartufo volante' shaved tableside in a generous shower, is the house dish; piccione disossato and cinghiale in umido follow. Lunch is more relaxed than dinner; closed Wednesdays.

A vaulted, candlelit 12th–13th-century stone room a few steps from Spoleto's Duomo, where chef Giuseppe Sinisi cooks handmade strangozzi alla spoletina (garlic, chilli, tomato; the Spoleto dish) and slow-braised meats. Start with the strangozzi and a glass of Trebbiano Spoletino, finish with lamb or tagliata and a Sagrantino. Book ahead in summer, during the Festival dei Due Mondi.

The Urbino restaurant that does vincisgrassi the way it should be done: Marche's great baked layered pasta with slow-cooked ragù, sometimes chicken livers, sometimes black truffle, the top baked crisp. In a 1400s stone-walled room a few minutes from Raphael's house and the Palazzo Ducale; start with the crescia (Marche flatbread) and pair the vincisgrassi with a glass of Verdicchio di Matelica.

A small, modern-feeling osteria in the centre of Ascoli, Marche cooking with care and a light hand. Start with the frittura all'ascolana (a mixed fry of stuffed olives, cremini/fried cream, lamb chops), then chitarrine with black truffle. The wine list runs deep on Rosso Piceno and Pecorino; sane prices for the quality. Book on weekends; closed Mondays.

An intimate dining room in the centre of Macerata, where chef Michele Biagiola cooks rural Marche through a foraged, vegetable-first lens (wild herbs, fermentations, garden-in-a-dish, a spaghetti all'arrabbiata that reframes the classic). Michelin-recognised, and overlooked because it's in Macerata. Lunch is the gourmet expression, dinner the looser one; closed Tuesdays.

The formal restaurant inside Castello di Reschio, the Bolza family's 1,500-hectare estate on the Umbrian-Tuscan border. Fine dining built right into the 11th-century castle's west rampart walls, a sunset terrace over the valley, a kitchen run off the estate's own gardens, oil and wine; modern Italian without showing off. Non-guests welcome with a reservation well in advance; the casual sibling Alle Scuderie is in the old stables if you want both.

Courtesy of Palazzo Seneca

One Michelin star plus a Michelin Green Star inside the 16th-century Palazzo Seneca in Norcia (the Umbrian truffle and salumi town, half-rebuilt after the 2016 earthquake). The Bianconi family are on their fifth generation; head chef Fabio Cappiello (a veteran of the Bianconi kitchens for over fifteen years) and co-chef Fumiko Sakai pull from the traditions of the Sibillini mountains and the Norcia black-pork heritage. The signature Nursino Ramen (mushroom and ham consommé) is why the inspectors keep coming back. Five tasting menus including a vegetarian; dinner only, closed Wed; book by 8 p.m. the night before.

One Michelin star in Loreto (a small pilgrimage town twenty minutes from Senigallia), where chef Errico Recanati took over his grandmother's restaurant and where every dish is touched by wood, embers or smoke. The pigeon (aged, cooked over coals, finished in the wood oven) is the dish people come back for; the tasting menu is the best way in. Short wine list, no filler.

One Michelin star on the Pesaro seafront: chef Stefano Ciotti's clean modern room with windows onto the boats, Marche-rooted but unfussy. The brodetto (slow, concentrated Adriatic fish stew with grilled bread) is the dish he's known for; the tasting menus pull from the hills as much as the sea. Pair with Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi. Less theatre than the Senigallia heavyweights, and a little easier to book.

One Michelin star plus a Green Star in a 700-person village up on the Sibillini mountains, where Enrico Mazzaroni rebuilt the restaurant after the 2016 earthquake and now grows or raises most of what's on the plate. The drive in is theatrical (switchbacks, oak forest, Monte Sibilla filling the windshield). Lunch is the easier booking.

Three Michelin stars on Senigallia's molo di levante: looks like a beach restaurant from outside, and has spent thirty-five years inside defining what Marche seafood can be (Mauro and Catia Uliassi since 1990). The smoked spaghetti with clams and roasted date tomatoes is the one everyone orders; the wild-duck 'lab di mare' tasting flips between sea and game. Book several months ahead for summer; closed Monday and Tuesday.

Photo: Lorenzo Cicconi Massi · Courtesy of Madonnina del Pescatore

Moreno Cedroni's two-Michelin-star restaurant at Marzocca di Senigallia: the chef who introduced Italians to Adriatic crudo around 2000, still pushing fermentation, smoking and ageing without losing the plot. Long sushi-style bar, small modern room ten minutes south of Uliassi along the same coast. Order the raw-fish tasting menu and let them drive; pair with Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi. Book early.

A beachside trattoria in the Conero national park's Portonovo cove since 1929 (known locally as Da Marisa): Slow Food Foundation flagship for moscioli, the wild rope-grown Adriatic mussels native to this stretch of rocky coast. Order them alla portonovese (tomato, white wine, garlic, parsley, breadcrumbs) with a chilled Verdicchio, lunch with your feet near the water. Open spring through autumn.

The Perugina factory and museum just outside Perugia (Luisa Spagnoli created the Baci chocolate kiss at Perugina in 1922): book an English-language tour, walk the production line, watch Baci being wrapped, end at the museum café for the tasting. Touristy in the way you don't mind, well-organised and fun, and the chocolate is good. Skip it in October during EuroChocolate, when the place is mobbed.

The Spoleto aperitivo to make time for: the region's official tasting room, maybe 50 Umbrian producers behind the bar and a team happy to walk you through them. Sagrantino di Montefalco is the headline red; the white Trebbiano Spoletino is the surprise, mineral and underrated. Order a tagliere of pecorino di fossa (cave-aged) and salame umbro to go with. Short walk from the Duomo; closed Mondays.

A small biodynamic Verdicchio producer in Staffolo, forty-five minutes inland from Ancona. Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi is the Marche white to start with, and La Staffa is a good place to start. Bright, mineral, structured wines that go as well with brodetto as with truffle pasta. Tastings are intimate, in a converted barn, often led by Riccardo Baldi himself; book ahead, small windows.