ORVIETO
Guide to traditional (Slow Food) places to eat and stay
Osterie & Locande D'Italia

L'ASIN 0 D ORO
Restaurant
Vicolo del Popolo 9
Tel, 0763 344406
Closed Monday
Open: lunch and dinner
Holidays: variable
Seating: 45 + 45 outdoors
Prices: 25-30 euros, wine excluded
All credit cards except AE

The Asino d'Oro is a pleasant place to eat and provides an experience that gratifies almost all the senses .... Taste, first and foremost. The restaurant is located in the old town, in a narrow street that leads off the main street toward Piazza del Popolo. The setting is simple but well maintained and the atmosphere is often enhanced by background classical music.
The menu is full of well prepared tradi­tional dishes (some - such as tegamac­cio of eggplant and peppers served with melted chocolate, for example - are given interesting explanations in a foot­note). Highly skilled maestro that he is, Lucio Sforza starts the ball rolling with a selection of crostini, followed by other ap­petizing antipasti: baffo (fried guanciale, or cheek bacon) with sage and vinegar, herring with apple budino and timbale of eggplant with goat's cheese. In the day­time menu, it's difficult to choose be­tween soups and pasta dishes, such as umbricelli with ricotta, basil and lemon and gnudi with chard and goat's cheese. Moving on to the main courses, the roast silverside of Chianina beef and the rabbit with peppers, cherries and capers are both excellent. On the fish menu, we rec­ommend stewed baccala with raisins and fillet of whitefish with Onano lentils. Desserts vary according to Lucio's inspi­ration: mint blancmange with peach jelly, liquorice blancmange, hazelnut and cof­fee bavarcis, or vellutata of dark choco­late, amaretti and chilli.
A good choice of regional wines, avail­able both by the bottle and by the glass, embraces the best Umbrian production. A round of applause for the varieties of coffee on offer, and the excellent prac­tice of not including children under 12 in the final bill.

LA GROTTA
Trattoria
Via Signorelli 5
Tel. 0763 341348
Closed Tuesday
Open: lunch and dinner
Holidays: one week in July and in winter
Seating: 60
Prices: 30-32 euros, wine excluded
All credit cards, Bancomat

It's not every day that, just because you've chosen a first course (in this case fagliatelle with ckicken giblets), you're enthusiastically led into the kitchen where the patron wants to show you the free-range chickens whose innards will soon be served on your plate. Franco Titocchia, the proprietor of La Grotta, is exuberant, confident and proud of how he runs his trattoria, which is regularly visited by the inhabitants of Orvieto, Ital­ian and foreign tourists, and food enthu­siasts and experts. His reputation rests on his experience and his trattoria is something of an institution since he's been in the business since 1945.
The menu offers an exciting range of gastronomic specialties. The antipasti include mixed crostini and bruschetta with Orvieto oil, ham and cured boar. Then you can choose from umbricelli or tagliatelle with duck ragu or all'arrabbi­ata, tagliolini with artichokes or zucchini, and excellent dishes made with locally grown chickpeas. The chicken in tegame with black olives is just one of many main courses, others being pi­geon in salmi, Iamb cutlets, grilled meats, wild boar stew or rabbit in pars­ley sauce. To end your meal you can choose between the cheese board, which assigns pride of place to local Pecorino, or a selection of home-made desserts: tiramisu, panna cotta, zuppa inglese and tozzetti with Vin Santo.
The wine list features an exhaustive range of Orvieto labels, as well as a good showing from the rest of Umbria and Italy.

LA PALOMBA
Trattoria
Via Manenre 16
Tel. 0763 343395
Closed Wednesday
Open: lunch and dinner
Holidays: between July and August
Seating: 50
Prices: 22-24 euros, wine excluded
All credit cards, Bancomat

For anyone wishing to have proof or confirmation of the excellence of Orvi­eto's local cuisine, we warmly recom­mend La Palomba, in the heart of the city next door to the 13-century Palazzo Comunale. This is just the right place to enjoy simple food with traditional flavors and soak up the atmosphere of the city. The trattoria is a family affair and each member shares in the general manage­ment with courtesy, friendliness and ex­pertise. The kitchen is the realm of Gb-vanna, who for five decades, as if by magic, has transformed prime quality seasonal produce into delectable food that is now part and parcel of local gas­tronomic history. Clients can try her crostini al salmi and various types of bruschetta, including one with extra-vir­gin olive oil and truffle freshly grated at the table. Among the first courses, tagli­atelle al sugo di gallina and umbricelli all'arrabbiafa or with other seasonal ac­companiments. On feast days, Giovan­na cooks a fantastic pigeon dish, palomba alla leccarda, as well as tripe and lamb 'a scottadito', all well present­ed by the consolidated front of house team of Carla, Enrica and Giampiero. If you can still manage a pudding to round off your meal, try ordering one of the de­licious home-made treats: wild berry pie, ice cream served 'caldo-freddo' or classic tozzetti with Vin Santo.
The wine list is well structured and in­cludes both local and regional wines, as well as a few good labels from Tuscany.

LOCANDA ROSATI
Holiday farm
Localita Buonviaggio 22
Tel. 0763 217314-348 7466451 Fax 0763 217314
E-mail: info@locandarosati.orvieto.tr.it
Internet: www.locandarosattorvieto.tr.it
Closed from January 7 to March 1 and December 24-25

In the hills of Orvieto, a few kilometers from Lake Bolsena, you'll find this late 19-century stone farmhouse out of which owners, Giampiero, Luisa, Alba and Paolo (the chef), have converted into an agriturismo. The three common rooms are basic and unpretentious as is the rest of the house. Breakfast is excel­lent and consists of coffee, tea, milk, or­ange juice, yogurt, cake, homemade bread and jam, and on request, bacon and eggs, ham and cheese. In the evening you can enjoy the local cuisine with its strong flavors in the restaurant, which is for residents only (around 30 euros, including wine). Near the dining room is a wine cellar dug out of the tufa and a space where they sell olive oil, jams and wines from Umbria and Tus­cany.

• 1 single, 5 double, 2 triple and 2 four-bed rooms, with bathroom (1 with Jacuzzi), modem connection; some rooms with air-conditioning • Prices: sin­gle 90-100 euros, double 110-120, triple 140-150, four-bed 170-ISO, breakfast in­cluded • Credit cards: Visa, MC, Banco-mat • Facility accessible to the mobility challenged, 1 room designed for their use.  Off-stree parking. Small pets allowed. Owners always present. Restaurant (for residents only).  2 lounges, Internet point.  Grounds. Pool

TRATTORIA DELL'ORSO
Osteria
Via della Misericordia 18-20
Tel. 0763 341642
Closed Monday and Tuesday Open: lunch and dinner
Holidays: July
Seating: 60
Prices: 30-33 euros, wine excluded
All major credit cards, Bancomat

The Trattoria dell'Orso is a good exam­ple of how there are still places in a tourist city like Orvieto that keep up the standards of traditional cooking. The os­teria, managed by the friendly and com­petent Gabriele Di Giandomenico and Ciro Cristiano, is one of the oldest in the city. In the past, the clientele included country people, farmers and salesmen visiting the city on market days. Now, after appropriate restoration work, the premises have been tastefully decorat­ed and decorated with wooden wall sculptures.The kitchen, however, contin­ues to serve local dishes that reflect a seasonal use of prime ingredients.
The meal starts with vegetable dishes and mixed crostini, which are followed by excellent homemade tagliatelle, served with mushrooms or truffles -also used to dress other dishes - or with cherry tomatoes and Scamorza. There is also a variety of equally delicious soups, including classic spelt soup. All the main dishes feature some form of meat: from guinea fowi with truffles to rabbit with spices, lamb 'a scottadito' and chicken alla cacciatora. The dish­es are always served with a selection of vegetables in season. To round off the meal, we recommend the selection of pastries or various types of puddings.
There's a good wine list, obviously bi- ased mainly on Orvieto labels.