9320 le Grotte near to civitella

its in the centre of Ripe di Civitella del Tronto... which is towards the hills from the fortress..

cannot say it is a wonderful character type of building but the food is excellent and it specialises in Funghi,Tartufi and Cacciagione

i think it is not much use going there if you do not like your mushrooms and wild game...

it has menus posted outside the door and you can ask for one of those ...otherewise the owner...a lady named Cinzia ...just brings you whatever she thinks best to start with...normally say about an hour or so worth of starters... never sure how to describe this... cannot keep up with counting the dishes... so i tend to sort of measure in time taken to eat... anyway its all mushroom truffle based anti pasta...

the pasta courses are centered around either games or mushrooms and the mixed grill or stews the same... for example the stews you get offered a choice of venison or hare or boar....

anyway food is excellent ... its closed on Mondays ... its most probably worth booking in advance at the weekends

tel 0861 91484 or 333 615504

there are the caves to visit just past the village or the fortress at civitella is about ten minutes drive... its a very pleasant area with lots to do and see and plenty of places to walk up an appetite or wear off some excess

Category
Eat & Drink

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/14/2008 - 09:18

Agree with you on Le Grotte. We've been a few times and It has become one of our local 'must visit everytime we are in italy' restaurants, and is excellent. I think there are only 2 set menus at 15 and 20 euros per head including drinks and Vin Santo e biscotti at the end. The portions are substantial, especially the pasta, which one portion is easily enough for two people.
We've had the delicious Mushroom antipasto with mostly porcini as well as other wild mushrooms and truffles (7 different dishes) - Antonio Carluccio would love this place.

Another restaurant that is worth an extra 6 or 7 kilometre drive further up the ss81 from Ripe towards Ascoli is Country House Il Piacere in Villa Lempa. This is one of our favourite restaurants in Italy and most of their food is home grown and/or home made. Weekends are busy so worth booking ahead.
[url=http://www.ilpiacere.biz]Country House Il Piacere - Agriturismo Abruzzo, Holiday Abruzzo Accomodation, Ville vacanze abruzzo, ville vacanze ascoli, ville vacanze teramo[/url]

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/14/2008 - 11:16

Biagio
they now have a 30 euro menu...also one for the virtu for the 1st may... a special menu throughout the province of Teramo Abruzzo for this day which is a special stew ...if it can be described so simply... there is a link below
[url=http://www.agritour.te.it/virt%F9.htm]Agritour Teramo - "Le Virtù" - Gastronomia d'Abruzzo.[/url]

anyway i am impressed you managed to count the starters... my excuse is that we were all watching the Moto GP at estorlil on Sunday... i will keep your link regarding the country house... its always good to get a recommendation...

sometimes i wonder why we don't get more info from people that live here...to me this is what this section is all about..and i appreciate the fact that others give input and generally if its a Teramo based option (i rarely travel outside) i always get to visit it in the end... and generally find its another gem