Castel di Luco

We ate with some friends at Castel di Luco on Sunday. Please click on the hyperlink to the website, click on the English version and look around. The welcome photos of the castle in Summer, Winter and at night do not capture how nice the area around the castle is. It is about a thirty minute drive from us and about 12 miles from a major city in the southern Marche, Ascoli Piceno in the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga national park. For more information on the very small area near it see, Acquasanta Terme.

While at the castle I picked up a brochure that gives a lot more information about it. The castle dates to at least the year 1052 when it is mentioned in some Papal documents stored in the cathedral in Ascoli Piceno. In some respects the castle is very small compared to other castles I have been in but inside has plenty of room. It is also remarkably well preserved perhaps due to the fact that substantial portions of it are actually carved from the Travertine rock that it sits on rather than being brick or stone set in place (that is to say, part of the castle is still part of the earth). The owners have been careful to preserve old Latin graffiti that were scratched into some of the walls at times. Like all good castles, it has rooms for wine making (the holding tanks being carved into the stone), a cistern, a jail, an oil room and a place to gather snow for preserving meat in the summer. The Via Salaria (the old salt path that played an important role in the establishment of Rome) passes by the castle and can easily be seen by it.

The restaurant and rooms are impeccably clean but well preserved areas that feature old murals (I do not believe they qualify as frescoes but I could be wrong) and original medieval architecture. I am happy to report the food is excellent and for a fixed price of 35 euro per person is a great bargain. The following is a catalog what each person got for 35 euro (that includes tip and tax): bread, water, wine, three plates of appetizers, two plates of first serving, two plates of second serving, desert, desert wine, liqueur, and caffe.

Appetizers included: a plate of meats and cheeses, a plate of appetizer pastas (such as ravioli stuffed with a chopped chestnut and honey filling) and a plate of deep fried herb seasoned ricotta, some balls and some fingers.

Firsts included: a plate of seasoned rice wrapped in leaves covered in a cream zuchinni sauce and a plate of cannelloni stuffed with ground mixed meat and covered with a tomato and meat sauce.

Seconds included a plate of roast pork and a plate of roast lamb.

Desert include a single plate with several small deserts on it including flan, cantucci (what Americans commonly call biscotti (in Italian biscotti refers to any cookie)), and several other small desert pastries; with desert came home made cooked wine must, which was some of the best I have ever tasted and following desert came Meletti anisette (a world famous local brand from Ascoli Piceno) and caffe.

As many Americans think Italian restaurants serve food on large plates "family style," I feel a need to explain that in the region where we live this is never done. When I write above that we received plates, it means each person received his or her own separate plate of the particular food.

Notes and comments on the food: All of the dishes were local specialties and included fresh local food and seasonings. Certainly something like meat stuffed cannelloni is not a local specialty but the particular stuffing and the sauce and seasoning of the sauce make it that. The same is true of each of the items on the menu. I thought each individual dish was excellent without exception. Of particular note, the roast lamb was probably the most tender and best tasting lamb I have ever eaten.

When you read this you must think, we ate a lot of food; and indeed we did. It was all excellent and the meal would probably be a bargain at triple the price. In fact, this same meal, in a similar setting, in tourist overrun Tuscany, would probably be 200 euro per person. A benefit of living in an area visited almost exclusively by European tourists, and mostly by Italian tourists, is that prices remain extremely low. If you ever want to eat at Castel di Luco, make sure you call first, they don't open for less than ten reservations. They are usually open but we have had to postpone one trip because of lack of reservations (that being during the dead part of winter). In the Spring and Summer, the probability is that not only are they open, they are completely booked.