Umbria & Le Marche

A family osteria on the main piazza of Montone — the tiny walled hilltop town (1,600+ people, 25 min from Perugia airport) 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 does the work) 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 locals' restaurant 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 since the 1960s — the one-page menu, the truffle pasta, and the pigeon are why locals send out-of-towners here. Umbrichelli (thick Umbrian spaghetti) with summer or winter truffle — the legendary '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 — chef Giuseppe Sinisi cooking 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, 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), 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. 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 — 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 but flying under the radar 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, the most talked-about hotel opening in Umbria of the last five years. Fine dining built right into the 11th-century castle's west rampart walls with a sunset terrace over the valley, kitchen built on 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 on their fifth generation, where head chef Fabio Cappiello and co-chef Fumiko Sakai — Cappiello a veteran of the Bianconi kitchens for over fifteen years — pull from the local traditions of the Sibillini mountains and the historic Norcia black-pork heritage. The signature Nursino Ramen (mushroom and ham consommé) is why Michelin 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) — chef Errico Recanati took over his grandmother's restaurant and turned it into one of Italy's most original kitchens, every dish touched by wood, embers, or smoke. The pigeon (aged, cooked over coals, finished in the wood oven) is the dish people return for; the tasting menu is the best way in. Short, serious wine list.

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 on the Sibillini mountains — Enrico Mazzaroni rebuilt the restaurant after the 2016 earthquake and grows or raises most of what's on the plate. The first Michelin star ever awarded in the province of Ascoli Piceno; the drive in is theatrical (switchbacks, oak forest, Monte Sibilla in the windshield). Lunch is the easier booking; the price-to-quality ratio is among the best in Italy at this level.

Three Michelin stars on Senigallia's molo di levante — looks like a beach restaurant from outside, has been quietly defining what Marche seafood can be for thirty-five years inside (Mauro and Catia Uliassi since 1990). The smoked spaghetti with clams and roasted date tomatoes is on every menu for a reason; 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 Marzocca di Senigallia restaurant — the chef who introduced Italians to Adriatic crudo around 2000 and still pushes fermentation, smoking, and aging 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 to locals 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 (the Baci chocolate kiss was invented here 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 best sense — well-organised, fun, genuinely good chocolate. Skip in October during EuroChocolate, when the place is mobbed.

The right Spoleto aperitivo — the region's official tasting room with maybe 50 Umbrian producers behind the bar and a team happy to walk you through. Sagrantino di Montefalco is the headline red; the white Trebbiano Spoletino is the real revelation, 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 — if you only drink one Marche wine on this trip, drink Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, and La Staffa is the producer to know. Bright, mineral, structured wines that pair 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.