Food and Wine in Alta Tuscia territory

Restaurants and Trattorie throughout Alta Tuscia serve delicious, wholesome local cuisine, and many special food festivals are held in celebration of the area’s uniquely-flavoured produce, from Valentano chick peas, Onano lentils and Gradoli’s famous beans of purgatory, to Proceno garlic, Canino Asparagus, Acquapendente special cereal called “farro del Pungolo” and Bolsena tomatoes. Many of the local specialities – some of them dating back to Etruscan times- are unique to the area. Honey ( for which Mount . Rufeno is famed) features in many sweet and even savoury dishes. Wine is produced here to Italy’s usual high standards. The best-known local quality wines are Aleatico (Gradoli) and Est!Est!Est! (Montefiascone). The Alta Tuscia Wine Route linking Acquapendente, Proceno, Onano, Bolsena, San Lorenzo Nuovo, Gradoli, Grotte di Castro, Latera and Valentano, was set up to promote: “gastronomic tourism” and connects up the most traditional Trattorie, farm holiday establishments, fish farms other craft-based concerns, all marked for tourists by special road signs. The area is no less famous for its olive oil, especially the oil made around Lake Bolsena and in Canino.

In an area of woods and rivers game and fish are of course in plentiful supply (mushrooms also feature prominently in many dishes), and in the centuries since the marshes were drained, Alta Tuscia has also had grazing land for its livestock farms, providing beef and lamb. Porchetta, or roast sucking-pig, is one of the most popular kinds of pork, and a wide range of charcuterie products is available.

Good local cheeses are also to be found, for example pecorino, one by-product of local sheep-farming activities. Adding further to the variety of foods are the vegetables and pulses that grow in abundance in these parts.

As for desserts, many of the local biscuits, cakes and pastries, made using local ricotta cheese, nuts and so on, are associated with yearly festivals (Carnival and Easter in particular).