Oro Rosso - MONTEFALCO

Good pizza has nothing to do with a nicely decorated environment and how big is the pizzeria... This is a gem. Excellent, soft and spongy napoletanian dough, good quality materials and a fast service. Recommended.

Ore Rosso Restaurant, Corso Goffredo Mameli 18, Montefalco, Umbria We ate at the Ore Rosse in Montefalco when we were staying over in the neighbouring town of Massa Martana. Umbria is the rich part of rural Italy where we could sit outside of an evening with a glass of white in hand and look out over the rolling countryside mauve tree covered hills, couple 15th century hill top towns in the distance and cereals harvested/stubble remaining in nearby fields. The last of the early evening sun was catching the high arc of water from an irrigation gun that was blasting a crop of young maize not 200 m away. We wondered rhetorically how to improve on things. We should be so fortunate with our time and place. It was pleasantly warm. The evening meal was underway in the converted out building that we had rented for a few days, with the aroma of the rice and gamberetti drifting out through the open door on to the patio (there was a green salad too). Across the yard there was one of those renovated farmhouses – sympathetic, period piece, gorgeous – that has typified investment in infrastructure across Umbria for >40 years and which has helped boost economic/tourist development in the region. We were staying in what used to be a farm stable/shed and there was a photo hanging on the wall in the living room c. 1920s to prove it. All too soon we had to move on. The place is still there, however, and we’d like to think that we’ll get back sometime. It was a moot point enjoying our meal that evening and, more particularly, when our host joined us – bringing dolce and a bottle of wine. The same time the day before we had been in Montefalco little more than 20 km from where we were staying and accompanied by a couple of good friends from Deruta. They knew the town well. We had parked outside the wall to the Centro Storico and entered by the gate that led through to the Corso Goffredo Mameli which, in a roundabout sort of way, led to our meal at the Oro Rosso Restaurant later that evening. The story went something like this … our friends met up with their friend who had a shop in the town … we all met her, explored her shop, talked and then shared a meal together with another friend of a friend six of us dining together; it made for a table to remember, and not least because of local festivities in the town that evening. The town had shifted back to the 15th century with many people in period dress – men and women. Celebrations were centred upon the Piazza del Comune at the top of the Corso (and at the heart of the Centro Storico) and the al fresco dining offered. We wanted to explore further before dining – it was our first time in the town everyone agreeing to meet/dine for 18.00 h at the restaurant. A table out front overlooking the Corso was requested. In the piazza there were lines of parallel tables and benches covering the entire open paved area with estimated 500 place settings on white tablecloths. We checked at the office registering diners – cost €30/head. Presiding over the piazza, tables and gastronomic festa was the imposing presence of the Comune building – white with seven arch portico entrance on to the paving (with decorative red lights and drapes that evening); large central clock set into the face of the building. Enter the piazza on foot and head downhill on the other side towards the city wall that overlooks the valley of the Fiume Topino/Teverone/Tevere stretching away to the Apennines further west there’s this grand panorama of lands that were once the haunt of the Ancient Umbrians; lands that are now criss crossed by the highways of modern Italy – you could trace the line of the ancient/modern Via Flaminia (i.e. the original/Ancient Rome Rimini road) beneath the hills. Wandering the narrow steep roads back towards the central piazza we came across a memorial wall plaque celebrating a vine of the original sagrantini/red wines for which Umbria is well known. You could see the vine over the wall – looking in fine fettle – and dating from 1850 according to the plaque. Back at the restaurant we took one of the three tables available on a platform overlooking the Corso – six of us with a couple of popular menus to explore – Menu Turistico and Menu Economico at €15/person. Check out the scontrino – Veal/Scaloppini al Limone and Verdura Campagnola dominated with 1x Menu Economico, 1x Omelette Tartufo and a handful of Dolce of which gelati was the most popular. Best of all, one of the friends of a friend opened a bottle of local red at the table. We paid €116 for our meal – excellent value. We and our friends shared costs at €56/couple – celebrating our friends, their friends and, not least, ourselves. The meal had been delicious – hot, plentiful, exquisite foods; the dolce complementing the mains and the wine providing that catalyst for the delights of a table on the Corso, the people in period clothing passing by and that mix of places, images, history and people that tends to suggest some kind of continuity to you and your time. Montefalco is simply one of a many such places across the province that open imaginative doors of this kind. Peter Steele 09 December 2019

Really enjoyed our meal, fabulous food and service. We had a very relaxing evening here with friends, all our meals were faultless, the homemade desserts were delicious. We were made to feel as though we were at home. Very reasonable prices and house wine was perfect.

Gentilissimi e cordiali… unici ad accettare turisti alle ore 22…consigliato e veramente tutto buono. Grazie di tutto ci ritorneremo…

Ristorante molto carino e pulito . Menu tipico e ben curato . Padrona del locale molto cortese e preparata . Ci ha dato ottimi consigli per la nostra gita oltre naturalmente a ottimo cibo.