Rocket79

TDudette

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

bvlenci

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.

ekscrunchy

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.

Rocket79

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

ekscrunchy

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.

Rocket79

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.

ekscrunchy

Pacentro:

taverna de li caldora pacentro abruzzo

Scanno:


https://losgabelloscanno.it

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

ekscrunchy

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.

Rocket79

Hi there- just seeing this; WiFi spotty here! We have not been to Sulmona yet, but will try to let you know what transpires! If it’s super rainy we may skip it and head back to the coast. Fossacesia is really nice, will write a little report when we return. Caio for now!

Rocket79

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

Rocket79

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...

ekscrunchy

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!

bvlenci

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.

ekscrunchy

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

bvlenci

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.

Leely2

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

ekscrunchy

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?

bvlenci

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.)

bvlenci

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.