Shopping for lunch at Visso market

Food and Drink

      Pasta is the natural starting point for this important section. Proudly home-made fresh ribbons or luscious thin strips feature high on menus as tagliatelle or tagliolini. Smothering sauces include funghi (local wild mushrooms, unfailingly delicious), ragù, hearty meat sauce, and amatriciana, a spicy stew of pancetta (bacon), tomatoes and onions. Meat is naturally high-profile food in these mountainous areas, notably as a secondo course. Wild boar (cinghiale) may be offered in umido (stewed). Don’t be put off by the offer of castrato which means a type of tender lamb. Delicious when barbecued and sprinkled with herbs and olive oil, it is eaten with the hands. Grigliata mista is mixed grilled meat, generally pollo (chicken), manzo (beef), agnello (lamb) or older pecora (mutton), while rosticini are barbecued skewers of whatever meat is going. Olive ascolane from the Ascoli Piceno district are fat green olives stuffed with sausage meat, crumbed, fried and devoured finger-burning hot!

      The Piano Grande di Castelluccio is famous all over Italy for its tiny flavoursome lentils, lenticchie (yes, Italians do get excited about such little things if it’s related to eating). They may be served in a savoury runny soup consumed with toasted unsalted bread or accompanied by spicy sausages. On the vegetable front (contorno, side dish) there is bitter cicoria, wild greens that are boiled lightly then tossed in garlic, chilli and oil. Autumn walkers have a good chance of being fed hot roast or boiled castagne (chestnuts).

      Cheese (formaggio) tends to be dominated by pecorino (sheep’s milk cheese) though blends using cow’s milk (latte di mucca) are common. A variant on the delicious soft Italian ricotta cheese is creamy raviggiolo, consumed fresh or used in pasta stuffing as well as desserts. Evidently records survive from the 1500s when it was presented as a prized gift to the Pope.

      In the Marche region aniseed (anice) is a common ingredient, and is used effectively with red wine in fragrant, baked biscotti. It is also the main ingredient of Varnelli, a very popular clear spirit, a bit like Pastis. A delicious dessert wine that is home-made and can be exceedingly sweet is vino cotto, with shades of Marsala. Wines vary tremendously though reds tend to dominate. If you’re after booze from the surrounding territory, the Marche has a couple of DOC raters (Dominazione di Origine controllata, an essential guarantee): Rosso Piceno is a very decent table quality, best drunk young, and a white equivalent is Falerio dei Colli Ascolani. Umbrian wines from the vicinity include Colli Martani and Colli Amerini varieties. Naturally, serious wine lists also feature vintages from leading Italian regions such as Tuscany and Piemonte.

      Breakfast (prima colazione) is a choice of té (tea), caffé served with latte (milk) or frothed up as a cappuccino, or just short, strong and black (nero) in espresso form. Children can often request cioccolata calda (hot chocolate), but parents should be aware that this rich dense luscious Italian version is highly addictive! Bread, butter and jam (pane, burro, marmellata) complete the picture, maybe a pastry if you’re lucky.

Plant Life

      As is immediately obvious, the tree line in the Sibillini is virtually at a clear cut 1500m above sea level. The entire range was once thickly forested with beech and fir, but demands of livestock rearing and nomadic grazers, along with charcoal burners, progressively led to widespread deforestation, resulting in vast expanses of grassland on upper slopes. However, swathes of thick woodland persist at medium altitudes, a stunning spectacle in autumn with infinite shades of red and orange.

      The flower arena is vast and extremely exciting for enthusiasts, as a remarkably broad array of blooms flourish thanks to the marvellous diversity of habitats. These embrace a range from low-altitude dry and typically Mediterranean terrains, woodland, pasture slopes, all the way up to alpine-like altitudes well over 2000m. There’s also a decent batch of ‘endemics’ – plants found in a limited geographical area. Most notably, the elevated central ridges of the Sibillini are the perfect haunt for the rare Apennine edelweiss. Like its iconic alpine relative it has creamy-coloured thick velvet petals and pale green leaves. However, this plant grows closer to the ground, presumably to protect itself from the strong winds prevalent here. It begins flowering in late June and is a protected species! Brilliant blue gentians share its habitat along with delicate pink rock jasmine and lilac alpine asters. Not far away on limestone scree are golden poppies and clumps of fleshy-leafed alpine cabbage, yellow and attractive despite the name. A little further down at meadow altitude flourish a wealth of divine orchids, including the exquisite insect types known as Ophrys. Elegant orange lilies and the wine-red martagon variety are never far away. Shady woods on the other hand are the perfect