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montefortino |
| A few kilometres south of Amándola, the hill-village of MONTEFORTINO is perhaps a prettier base than Amándola, touristy in season and dead quiet out, but less well served by buses. Primarily a place to wander and admire the Sibillini views, Montefortino also has a small Pinacoteca (daily 10am-1pm & 4-7pm), whose chief attractions are a polyptych by Alemanno - a follower of the Crivelli who took as much delight in painting embroidery as they did - and an arresting twelfth-century portrait of a man with a pipe and candle emerging from the darkness. Appropriately, given the necromantic traditions of the area, there's also an eighteenth-century painting of Circe with her occult apparatus. There's nowhere to stay actually in town, the nearest rooms are at the restaurant Da Benito (tel 0736.859.515; L60,000-90,000/¬30.99-46.48) at the petrol station below town, just before the turn off to Ambro. If you have a car, however, you can take the road signposted Sanctuaria dell'Ambro, and head 5km west to Localitŕ Ambro, where you'll find a cluster of bars and market stalls at the weekend selling delicacies of the region and two places to stay. The friendly bar-restaurant with rooms Peppiné (tel 0736.859.171; L60,000-90,000/¬30.99-46.48), offers simple accommodation and a menu including tagliatelle casarecce and lamb cacciatore (hunter style), while the Ambro (tel 0736.859.170; L90,000-120,000/¬46.48-61.98), is a bigger slightly dour albergo also above a busy bar-restaurant, with a cheering menu which includes pasta with funghi porcini and gorbani (mountain greens), wild boar, kid and truffles. |