Where to eat in Sulmona?
 

No first-hand info here but googling brought up below. Ask your hotel folks about their recommendations (and for help with reservations if you don't speak Italian well). Will you be there on a Sunday? Another reason to see about advanced reservations.

https://www.viamichelin.com/web/Restaurants/Restaurants-Sulmona-67039-L_Aquila-Italy

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g194928-Sulmona_Province_of_L_Aquila_Abruzzo.html

We visited Sulmona, Scanno, and other nearby towns about ten years ago. If you're not looking for haute cuisine, it's really hard to go wrong in that part of Italy, or in neighboring Le Marche (where I live). Read up on local specialties and look for places offering them. We ate very well in Abruzzo and never consulted a restaurant guide.

I have a list compiled from a lot of reading mostly Italian websites. Once I get power restored I will give you a few names that I jotted down. I plan to be there next month for four nights. In Pacentro Il Caldora caught my eye.

Thanks everyone! Really appreciate this input! Will love to see your list, ek.

Ok..power back on!

In Sulmona, I noted Gino (lunch); Vecchio Muro for pizza, and Trattoria Don Ciccio

From Sulmona, possible daytrip to Caprafico to Trapeto di Caprafico for olive oil: http://www.trappetodicaprafico.com/az...

http://www.gamberorosso.it/it/food/10...

and to Giacomo Santolieri for farro pasta (??) Not sure if they sell retail on site.

This is fabulous. Thank you! We will be within 45 minutes of the Olive Oil place in Casoli area! And a 4 minute walk to either of those places in Sulmona. Now - what if we're in Pacentro or Scanno? .... I think we'll be fine, no matter what. :wine: :)

Pacentro:

taverna de li caldora pacentro abruzzo

Scanno:


https://losgabelloscanno.it

Mind you, I have not been yet but these are on my list...

Also, about an hour's drive from Sulmona is Civitella Casanova with two very, very highly regarded restaurants, La Bandiera and L'Angolo d'Abruzzo. I am thinking of visiting the first for lunch one day, from Sulmona.

Ooops..just saw you might have come and gone from Sulmona. If you did visit, would you mind giving a recap of where you ate and what you liked and didi not like....I'd be very grateful.

I will add that we drove and drove and could not find the olive oil place near Casoli. ��

And one more add: GPS. We did not bother to learn the tech and do this, and it was not good. We finally to our town after missing a few exits. We are in Calascio now, and it is raining pretty hard. Deciding if we should skip the mountains and head back to the Adriatic. It was hot but at least not raining. I had so many plans that seem impossible at this moment. Any advice or pep talks? Cheers...

Now what do you mean about the GPS tech? Does the rental car have GPS? Can you use your phone? (I am no expert in this, either!)
The weather is a real drag. See if you can get the forecast/weather map on tv or online and see if there is sun anywhere close by.... Inn bad weather I would rather be in a city, so maybe Pescara? Sulmona? Or even to Rome if it will be really terrible for a while..I sure hope not! At least you can eat well, even if it is raining!

The forecast for Calascio for the next few days is for mostly sunny mornings with chances of thunderstorms in the afternoons. Thursday may have rain off and on all day. Sulmona is much the same. Pescara has a more promising forecast, but always with the chance of showers.

Have you visited Castel del Monte? That would be something you could enjoy even in the rain . It's very near Calascio, and one of the most beautiful medieval constructions I've seen. It was constructed in the 13th century to a design of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, a real Renaissance man before the Renaissance. It's an octagonal castle (maybe intended as a hunting lodge), with eight octagonal towers and many other features of mystic symbology. I've been there twice, and would make a detour to see it again whenever passing through Abruzzo.

In Italy, you can find superb olive oil without seeking out distant mills that cater to tourists. What you want is cold-pressed oil, particularly that pressed with millstones. I'm sure someone in Calascio can recommend a frantoio nearby that meets these conditions. If not, there's one near Sulmona that has that kind of oil, pressed from hand-picked olives.
http://www.frantoiodellavalle.com

This year's olive harvest is about a month away (or maybe less in Abruzzo). Any oil you buy now will be from olives harvested in 2017. Oil keeps well for a year if stored in a cool dark place, or in dark glass bottles or stainless steel canisters. We buy our oil annually just after the harvest and store it in our cantina. In a frantoio you can usually choose filtered or unfiltered oil. The unfiltered oil is cloudy, and has a residue in the bottle. I tried it one year, but didn't see much difference, and went back to the filtered.

BVlenci: Why do you think that the frantoio I mentioned caters to tourists? Because they have a website? Have you tried their oil?


http://www.gamberorosso.it/it/food/1...fico-di-casoli

Their website announces their interest in international sales, and solicits investors, that's why. The one I mentioned, near Sulmona, also has a website, but it's a modest affair, in Italian only, which tells you to send an email for particulars.

Trappeto di Caprafico a large corporation, and they say that their harvest is mechanized, which right away tells me something. They may have a very good oil, and they've won prizes, but you don't need to go to a big well-known corporation to get excellent oil. In fact, the little producers usually have the best oil. It's usually a single variety, and they don't spray their trees, which means that sometimes the harvest is a disaster, but they usually have other income, so that doesn't wipe them out. At least you know what you're getting, and in a very bad year, they tell you they have no oil to sell. The website I indicated says that their olives are harvested by hand, and pressed within 24 hours of the harvest, cold pressed with granite millstones. That's really all I need to know.

I haven't bought any olive oil commercially for the past 20 years. I used to buy in bulk from a local frantoio, but I had a small doubt about his veracity; in a very bad year, when our own olives and those of everyone else we knew were so inferior we didn't even bother to harvest them, he claimed to have found good local olives. I suspected he was importing the oil from other regions. So in the past few years I buy directly from a small grower, who presses his own olives, which are harvested by hand. We bring our own 20-liter stainless steel container to his house, and he fills it for us. The oil is of excellent quality, and I don't care if it's never won any prizes. The farmer isn't sophisticated enough to submit his oil for prizes, or even to put a label on it, but he produces his oil with honesty and a vast knowledge.

We ourselves have only one tree, and usually it only produces enough to make cured olives for our own table, and a few gifts to family and friends. It's a prized variety, the raggia, found only in this area, and ideal for table use. One year our tree actually produced enough to make it worth pressing, and we got ten liters.

I loved the ruggedness of Abruzzo during my only and too brief visit. Next time I will visit Castel del Monte, thanks, bvlenci!

So if I am there third/last week in October, will I find oil? I suspect not, but would love to buy from a local maker. How can I find them near Sulmona, for example, or near Ascoli?

Ekscrunchy, I think you have a very good chance of being in Abruzzo at the height of the harvest. I did a little searching, and see that last year the harvest in the Sulmona area began around October 18th. I don't see any prediction for this year. The harvest would normally be earlier near the coast.

The frantoio I mentioned above, Della Valle, sounds good to me. Hand picked olives, ground with granite millstones, cold extraction within 24 hours of the harvest. It's in Prezza, just west of Sulmona.
http://www.frantoiodellavalle.com

However, I would also ask at your lodging. Almost every sizeable town has a frantoio. The way it works in our town is that the owners of the frantoio have their own olive groves. They also press oil for the farmers in the area. If you go there during the harvest, you'll see crates of olives labelled with the owner's name and the weight. These are for growers who want their own personal oil returned to them. You'll also see even more large stainless steel canisters with an owner's name and weight. These are for even smaller producers who bring their olives, get them weighed, and get a slip of paper indicating how much oil they'll get back. It won't necessarily be oil from their own olives. The frantoio sells oil, both from their own groves and from the general community production. (That's what we used to buy, before we started buying from a local grower.)

I would expect the olive harvest to be a little earlier in Ascoli Piceno, because it's at a lower altitude, but maybe not enough to matter. That area is famous for the "oliva ascolana", large stuffed olives, breaded and fried. I myself don't much care for them.

I searched for frantoii in the Ascoli Piceno area; there are several that look interesting. One is Frantoni, www.oliofrantoni.it . It seems to be a fairly large enterprise, but they say all their olives come from the immediate area. (This is important, as they should be pressed very soon after the harvest.) They sell filtered and unfiltered oil, either stone- or machine-pressed.

The olive harvest goes on for well over a month. The fruit doesn't get overripe and doesn't fall from the tree (barring severe wind). The oil from the earlier harvest tends to be a bit spicy, or "peppery", while the later harvest yields a more mellow oil. I prefer the peppery flavour, but it's a matter of taste.

Superb! Will bring a few empty glass bottles with me...good idea, or not necessary? Then just pack with the bubble wrap I always bring...... Much more interested in the oil than in the wine...

Since I have your ear for a moment, can I trouble you to ask about the outlets near Ancona? I know there is a Tod's/Hogan. Are these worth a visit for shoes or purses? Whenever I've been in Rome, locals tell me that this area is heaven for outlets..are they just the same type of stores that we can find all over Italy, or cause the manufacture may be done there, are they worth a visit?

Might be of interest to you, from today's NYTimes:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/f...w-economy.html

How far are you from Bargni? Or Senegallia? Want to meet for a lunch (Bargni) or dinner?

Oil is often sold in frantoii in stainless steel tins (lattine) of two or five liters. These are ideal for travel, and also for long term storage. The larger ones often have a spout for pouring.

I've never visited an outlet in my life, with the exception of one in the US that my sister dragged me to. I'm one of those people for whom shopping ranks with a visit to the dentist. However, there are definitely many outlets in that area, although I think more to the south than in the province of Ancona. Le Marche is a center of Italy's shoe industry, and Tod's is a marchigiano company. I think they're in Sant'Elpidio. Here is the English language page about shoe outlets in Le Marche.

https://www.italytraveller.com/en/e/top-marches

I live about 20 km from Senigallia. Send me a pm and we'll see if we can arrange something.

Hello all - We are back. I will try to get to a little report over the weekend, but in the meantime feel free to ask questions, and I'll check in to answer them. EK - We did not make it to Sulmona. The forecast was pretty much solid rain for the only two days we would be there, and as a photographer most of what I wanted to see was outside. Luckily our airbnb apartment in Fossacesia was available, so we went back there and enjoyed the coast, sun and seafood. We did do a day trip to Ascoli, and I really did enjoy that little city a lot. I'd go back. We also did a day trip inland to Guardiagrele; more on that later, but also very lovely.

We did indeed visit Castel del Monte, as it was the only place to get groceries near our apt in Calascio. But - I had planned to explore this town anyway, and it is well worth it. Construction is ongoing; however, we just walked through where we could. I would return to Abruzzo in a heart beat. LOVED Abruzzo. Also loved Umbria but didn't explore as much as I would have liked. More to come! Thank you again for all the input here and on other threads!

BV: Will do, this week.

Surprisingly, for anyone who is interested, we didi find new oil in Umbria, near Trevi, at a frantoio recommended by our hotel. The owner said they had begun picking two days before. It was a blend of two oils. I bought two i-litre tins to take home but will look for more once we reach Abruzzo.

BV..Will send you a PM, as we are now in Senigallia....gorgeous town! The warmest people!

There is an outlet mall in the Pescara/Chieti area. Città Sant'Angelo Outlet Village. Basically a cookie cutter copy of the other malls run by the same people. Same shops. Some items. Same prices.

If you're interested in something particular you should look for the manufacturer has their own outlet shop. Those can be worth a visit but the malls are often mostly a mix of made for outlet product and the same stuff you'll find in normally shops.

If you visited during the sale season and wanted to brave the crowds maybe it would be worth the trip but now? I wouldn't waste valuable vacation time . At least I wouldn't

Did not mean those groups of stores known as outlets although I used that word; we have them in the US and I never go. I meant factory stores like the Tod's which, indeed, is in St. Elipidio. But we are going to skip it just the same. You are right, not worth it on such a short vacation.

For BVLenci: Thank you for the mention of the mill in Prezza near Sulmona. We phoned and they were happy to have us come over yesterday and have a look around, and taste some oil that had just been pressed. Turns out they got a good report in the latest guide to oil, which they had in the office and which I peeked at. So I bought a few 1-liter cans to take home. They have, indeed, been picking here in Abruzzo but I was told by a couple of people that this year's oil is not as good as 2017's.

Ekscrunchy: In Le Marche, the harvest this year is very meagre. Last year was a bumper harvest. They're just beginning to harvest here, and I haven't heard anything about the quality of the oil. Was the oil you bought from 2017?

Thanks to my husband, who always insists on buying much more than we use, we're just beginning to use the 2017 oil, and we won't need to buy any oil this year. Every year, I tell my husband that we use approximately 1 litre per month, so we shouldn't ever buy more than 15 liters. So he insists on buying 30 liters.

Interesting...the oil I bought was just pressed. In Umbria we watched the pressing, and in Prezza the owner opened a spout on a steel container and filled the empty metal tins. I bought about 8 liters total..one liter tins. Hope they fit in my bags, or I will need to buy a new suitcase!! Also bought an olive wood salad bowl at the press near Corinaldo; their 2018 oil is not yet ready, though, but they were very lovely.

Maybe the harvest is meagre just in this area. Our own tree has hardly any olive on it.

I met a Canadian with Abruzzese roots who was visiting family in the Chieti area. He told me that his uncle was not going to harvest this year because his olives were afflicted by some kind of worm.

Question: Does the color of the olive (green or black) have any connection to the taste of the oil? Are both colors used equally frequently?

At the time of harvest, there are almost always olives with a wide color range. They are not separated by color before pressing. The time of harvest is determined by a chemical analysis, or by the trained eye of the farmer.

For preparing cured olives for the table, I separate them by color.

In some years, there has been widespread infestation by the olive worm in our area. Around here I don't know anyone who sprays their trees. A few years ago, there was a bad infestation and most people didn't harvest their olives.

EK - I hope you will do a trip report; I'd love to know your thoughts about Sulmona, Abruzzo, etc. I will do a report but it will probably be disappointing because we generally just stopped to eat wherever we found ourselves. So, nothing major to report on fancy restaurants and so forth. I'm loving this conversation about olives, oil, etc. We brought back a few things, wine, olive oil, lentils, and some fun pasta that we've not seen around our place. Also some truffle paste and truffle oil. But I am quite jealous of your 8 liters! How did you lug that back home?

Rocket,,I will do a report, at least I took notes for one this time. You must do one as well....does not matter where you ate.

We are still in Rome, so how to get that stuff home is concerning me at the moment. Just for fun, here are the options I came up with:

1. Send home my clothes with FedEx and put the oils and pasta and bottles of colatura and all the rest I have yet to buy, in the checked bags. Expensive.

2. Buy new, cheap-ish suitcase and check that, filled with the foods. (I can check 2 bags, I am pretty sure)
do not need another suitcase buy buying one will cost less than FedEx, I am pretty sure

3. Pay overweight, IF I can cram all the stuff into existing bags. (bad idea, i think)

4. Have hotel pack up the stuff in a carton and check that, along with other suitcase (worried about airline taking carton as checked baggage; also denting and crushing)

Now, how can I aattend to all those silly details when I am now just waking up in the center of Rome, with all this glory stretching around me in every direction!?

Well, I can't advise you on that one! I'm sure you'll let us know what you came up with for that packing situation. I hope you brought some bubble wrap, though. I used every bit of it that I brought with me! When we finally get some colder weather I will sit at my computer and type out a report. I hope you've had a great trip!

Thanks! I chose #2, buying suitcase at a Rome outlet of Carpisa, and will let you know how it goes once I get around to a trip report myself!!

Ha. Handle has already broken off the new suitcase and I am still in airport lounge in Rome!!