Trattoria Da Piero e Silvana {Umbria}

Sometimes the place where you live is the place you know the least. I wouldn’t say that Umbria, where we have had a home for almost 30 years, remains unknown to me. In fact, in at least 4 of my 8 books Umbria plays a starring role. But like most people I tend, after a while, to go back to places I know and love. Same restaurants, same stores, even the same museums and farms. But for the next few weeks Sophie and I have decided to go beyond our comfort zone and finally get to many of the places we’ve saving for the last few years on our wish lists.

The reason? Beyond pure curiosity, we also have 5 week-long tours coming up in Umbria in the next 9 months and we thought it would be nice to change things up a bit. One of the tours is based in Perugia, so we’ll be eating our way through that town, checking out restaurants. And two of the tours are based in Todi, where – we have realized – there are a handful of restaurants that have remained off our radar.

Usually, when we ‘go into town’ (Todi is the biggest town near our home) we have a tired and tested routine. We park at bottom of the hill, then take the funicular up to the top. We get out, marvel at the view out over the Tiber valley from the Giardini, then have a little passegiata up towards the main square. Most of our favorite places – restaurants, pizzerie, linen store – as well as things like pharmacies and banks – are right along this short but incredibly beautiful route. And while we always talk about wandering the alleys leading in other directions, since it involves steep climbs (Todi is a hill top village) we tend to just keep it as a future goal as we sip Negronis in the piazza.

But last night we ventured out on new paths. We parked at the foot of the hill, next to Bramante’s Consolazione, and wandered along narrow medieval alleys towards our destination: Trattoria Piero e Silvana.

Along the way we discovered a magnificent walk way above the medieval walls with views out over the other side of town. And those walls? Covered in caper plants that Sophie and I are planning on going back to pick.

We sat outside at Piero e Silvana’s and had, I think, the best table in the house. Perched on the corner of the outside terrace, our table looked across the street and had a picture perfect view down Via del Porto Nuovo where – at the end – the ancient archway framed the pristine valley below.

Our meal was as perfect as the view. Nothing fancy, which is just the way we like things. Rustic home cooking by the family that owns the place. We started with a charcuterie board (Sophie was craving salami) which included truffle topped pork salami, wild boar salami, deer prosciutto and some of the best home made porchetta I’ve had in a while. The platter also included two crostini topped with bubbling pecorino cheese that had been drizzled with honey and scattered with toasted coffee grounds which was fantastic.

Believe it or not, we were still feeling very meaty and so Domenico ordered stewed boar, which was in a rich and spicy sauce. Sophie and I, instead, order the mixed grilled meats which included a pork chop, a veal chop, chicken breast and a sausage. All perfectly seasoned and grilled, but WAY too much, so we ended up getting a doggie bag. (which actually made Pico quite happy).

Unfortunately we were too full for dessert, which I saw when I went inside to pay our bill. Cute jars full of tiramisu and panna cotta that we’ll just have to save to look forward to the next time we go.