What can I say about our neighbouring hilltop town?
It takes about 15 minutes to drive from our house. There are some particularly zigzagging bends and indeed you go past the house that we nearly bought before buying Valliano and that, lets face it, turned out seriously for the best. You come down our white track and either go down into Promano, past the Coop and stay right for about 3 minutes (ie not joining the E45) and you will see a sign off to the left which takes you up to Montone). The alternative is to turn left at the end of the white track and then follow the road down that side, which will take you down into the valley and up to Montone that way. The second route is quicker but maybe you should use a sat nav or map the first time you go that way.
Montone is said by a guide book (Italian Travel) to be one of the most beautiful villages in Italy. Whether you agree or disagree with that assessment, it has got to be worth a visit, bearing in mind just how close it is.
It is possible to cycle from our house to Montone. My wife did it and is very proud of that fact. She tends to mention it to guests quite a lot. However I do not think I would recommend it unless you are seriously fit (like she is) or of a particular masochistic tendency.
We have now visited Montone so many times I reckon it easily qualifies as our most frequented place in Italy. When we first came to the area we stayed in one of the hotels in town, La Locanda del Capitano. It was a perfectly reasonable hotel although I do remember the beds were pretty uncomfortable. But since we have not stayed there for 7 or 8 years now, the beds might have improved.
Our first local meal was in Montone. We sat and had an evening meal in the small town square with kids playing football against the neighbouring wall. There is a sun dial on the side of the building behind as you enter into the main square which is always at least an hour out. It also looks to me like the most least likely place to put a sun dial although of course it is possible that some of the buildings have grown up around the original building.
Parking in Montone is just outside the city walls. It is a one way system and you go up around the city walls to the left and can effectively drive right to the top (still outside the city walls) to a car park at the very top of the hill. This does get quite busy. We tend to park just after you have met the walls because there is an entrance at the lower of the town which takes you into the main square.
In the very small square there is a paper shop on the left hand side. There is also a tourist information place and a very good restaurant, L’Osteria Antica.
The other restaurant which we have visited many times is Il Tipico which is run by Paolo who is a great host with a real passion for all food and drink. You get to it by crossing the town square which has a sort of crossroads at the far side of it, and going straight ahead up the hill. It is about one minutes walk up the hill on the left hand side. I remember he gave us some free honey the first time we ate there.
The first time we visited we were the only people in there on a cold and wet February evening and he looked after us so well that we have been back many times and never disappointed. All the produce is locally sourced from Umbria. Which means no gin and tonics but it is hard to think of any other drawbacks to the restaurant. You can eat inside, which is a plan in February definitely, or outside in the Piazetti de la Rosa, which is a passageway just opposite the entrance to the restaurant. On one occasion we were actually able to eat in the main square. They had a single table overlooking the main square for our party of 10. The table is often not there but in the height of summer you may get lucky.
If you are back at the cross roads there is a road on the left, which has a general food store bread etc and is a good source for stocking up if you are in the town.
The place we tend to go for coffees is a shop facing as you go into the square if you park and come into it through the lower entrance, ie it is immediately to the right of the road leading up Il Tipico.
The square itself is called Piazza Braccio Fortebraccio which translates as Mr Arm Strongarm. I guess his life path as a condottiere was mapped out from the start. A bit like the doctor who treated President Garfield after he was shot, who was called Doctor Willard Bliss, with Doctor being his actual first name. Say hello to nominative determinism.
The coffee shop does lovely biscuits, Occhio di Bue Biscotti. Whilst we were sitting at the coffee shop on one occasion we got talking to two English women. One of whom lives in the village permanently and one of whom is a regular visitor there. There is apparently a little supermarket (Macellarie) if you turn right at the crossing rather than going straight ahead to Il Tipico down on the right there is a lovely local bakery – we have not tried this out yet but please let us know if you do.
There is a surprising amount going on in Montone. On one occasion we visited at random, there was an open air film being shown in the town square – it was part of a documentary film festival, which I think we were told, Terry Gilliam hosts. On another occasion when we arrived in August there was an unadvertised classical music festival (honouring France I think) which was taking place in various locations near to Montone (and indeed may have been in Montone itself).
There is a food festival in November I think too (we have not visited it) but it is definitely worth keeping an eye out for adverts on notice boards etc. There is far more of this type of advertising and much less on line in Italy. Another place to keep your eyes open is the airport. We lucked into the Trasimeno music festival one summer.
If you walk up the hill past the Il Tipico restaurant you come to the top of one of the hills in Montone. It is not the only one but it does have particularly fine views. La Rocca, Fortebraçcios Castle (which is just a shell now) is really more of a tower than anything else. It is worth the climb up the hill to see it. If you do park at the top of the town it is at the level of the castle. Either way it will not take you very long to admire the views.
There is another good restaurant at the top of the town with steps going down to it from the ground in front of La Rocca. Can’t remember its name at this point, but it is well worth trying. (Erba Luna? I think?) We only found it recently so have only eaten there a couple of times.
On the way up to La Rocca from the town square is Chiesa di Santa Croce which has the festival of the La Donazione della Santa Spina (sacred thorn). The sacred thorn is housed in the convent next door and it gets displayed during the festival which, last year, was 14 to 21 August. It is about three quarters of the way up from the centre square to La Rocca. The church seems to be open the whole time and I visited on a couple of occasions. Apart from noticing a replica/knock-off of the Last Supper ((from recollection in a chapel on the right-hand side) there is nothing much to see in the church itself.
I have also managed to visit the Pinacoteca Comunale di san Francesco. This is only open from 10am to 1pm Friday to Sunday each week. It actually shuts at around 12.45pm, in my experience, if nobody else has arrived. The best bit is undoubtedly the church itself. The guide book said that it is in poor condition, which is true, but you can still see how beautiful it must have been. The rest of the museum is well worth visiting but a weird mishmash of art (there are a couple of good pictures), ethnographic museum featuring African art and a number of model planes (no I do not know either). It is definitely worth a visit. It may not be worth two visits.
During one of our summer visits we noticed that the town is divided up into three zones each of which have their own flags decorating their particular part of the territory and they compete together. The notices said that events included putting on plays and participating in tournaments during the festival. When we went back a couple of days later the scores for all the events were posted on various shop windows. It might be worth going to watch what happens. I do like the idea of putting on competitive plays. It would make for a considerably better Oscar ceremony if those up for awards had to put on a play, or declaim a speech, and then the audience got to vote.
March 2018
We visited the Pinacoteca museum today. Sadly the ethnographic museum is shut at the moment so, if model planes in ethnographic museums are your thing, you will need to look further afield.
December 2018
We came here for lunch and ate at the restaurant on the left hand side of the square (L’antica Osteria) as you come in. We have always eaten outside in the town square but because the weather was too cold to eat out, we had a meal inside. There is a large indoor room for the restaurant at the back with lovely views out over the town walls. Worth remembering if the weather is too wet or cold and you want to eat out somewhere.
Summer 2021
We have now visited Montone so often that it really does feel like “our” local town. We even get recognised when we turn up each year in the coffee shop in the main square. We visited Alunni Alberto shop just off the main square walking towards Ristorante del Verziere.
We also found our way to the Blasi vineyard (Loc San Benedetto, Via Case Sparse 64 to try some local wines. Very drinkable and we were made to feel very welcome indeed. They do formal winetasting events but we just turned up to buy wine and were given various samples to try.