Jerusalem Post - The Country House Montali

 Like
Follow
122k
1.9k
Video Opinion Jewish World Lifestyle
Breaking News
Breaking News
'
Set as Homepage Sun, Feb 2, 2014 2 Adar I, 5774
Diplomacy & Politics
Features
Defense
Blogs
Business
Israel News
Mideast
Daily TV News
Syria
Iran
Premium
World
Green Israel French
Sports
Health & Science
18:17 ­
JPost.com
Travel
Travel News
Vegetarian paradise
By GLORIA DEUTSCH
Like
Tweet
RECOMMENDED
LAST UPDATED: 09/03/2010 16:41
What the Bible Says Ab
(Shocking)
Share One person likes this. Be the first of your friends.
1
Environment
0
Moneynews
Share
Seleccionar idioma ​
▼
7 Massive Transfers Th
Go Through Today
Scrumptious vegetarian food and great sight seeing
high in the Umbrian hills of northern Italy. Could be
worse.
ftbpro
The Ten Most Iconic Ph
The 1940s
All That Is Interesting
Send
Large
Small
Print
More from Jpost
IAF strikes targets in Gaza
Olive Groves at Montali Photo: Alex Deutcsh
When the waiters bring in the food at Montali, the first thing
the guests do is to take out their cameras and photograph it.
The award­winning country house, set high in the Umbrian
hills of northern Italy, serves gourmet vegetarian food of such
high quality that it has become a mecca for non­carnivores
from all over the world. Presentation at Montali is every bit as
important as taste – hence the cameras. After a week spent
in this dreamy retreat, all misconceptions about vegetarian
food are swept away – it can be delicious, satisfying and very
elegant.
The place is ideal for kashrut observers for whom,
unfortunately, food is often the least important part of the
holiday. Unless you are going on a tour or cruise which
provides kosher food, eating usually takes a back seat to all
the other attractions of foreign travel, and we have all learned
to survive on canned tuna, cheese triangles and, for the
really gourmet occasions, some vacuum­packed salami.
That was until we heard about the Country House Montali,
run for the past 15 years by a husband­and­wife team,
Alberto Musacchio and Malu Simoes. Their dream was to
create not just a gourmet paradise but a peaceful retreat
where the guests could get away from the stresses of daily
life and enjoy the calm, rustic atmosphere of a genteel
country home, with solicitous service, comfortable rooms and
a view of the surrounding hills and Lake Trasimeno below,
which lifts the heart every time you look out the window.
We booked a week at Montali through the Internet after
hearing about it from friends who had been there twice. We
felt that any place that people return to has got to be worth
looking into.
We rented a car in Rome and took half a day driving leisurely
to the area, following Musacchio’s instructions very closely.
The place is completely off the beaten track and without
detailed directions – “Enter a green woodland and pass a tall
oak tree on your right, then a small well on your left” – you
would get hopelessly lost.
Musacchio is there to greet us, a tall, slender man always
impeccably dressed in Italian designer clothes which, just like
the food, change every day. It’s almost as much fun seeing
what Musacchio is going to be wearing as anticipating the
exquisite dishes that emerge from the kitchen. He plays the
role of host to perfection, and even before we are shown our
rooms we are sipping white wine in the ivy­covered pergola
outside the dining room, where dinner will be served a few
hours later.
Lebanese media: IDF soldier
wounded by explosion along
northern border
Ya'alon: Palestinians see
destruction of Jews as realistic
possibility
Treasures of the Galilee
Israeli expert on Syria: The West
and Israel are not in hurry to get
rid of Assad
Recommended by
travel Italy vegetarian paradise Italian
food Montali Umbrian hills
He tells us his place is very popular with kashrut observers
and has many visitors from Israel. He’s well­known in the
Netherlands, where he has been featured numerous times on
television, and in Britain, where the BBC has done a
documentary on Montali and its ethos.
Not surprisingly the other guests were mainly Dutch or British.
THERE ARE ONLY 10 rooms and it’s not a hotel set­up: The
rooms are chalets out in the beautiful grounds, decorated in
rustic style with comfortable, wide beds, teak country furniture
and well­equipped separate bathrooms.
There is no air­conditioning and until the week before we
arrived one had to rely on finding a fan for some relief from
the heat.
JPost reporters
Tweets from a list by The Jerusalem Post
Benjamin Weinthal
@BenWeinthal
31m
Israel enmeshed in complex Syrian refugee crisis |
JPost | Israel News jpost.com/Middle-East/Is… via
@Jerusalem_Post
Kevin D. Williamson
@KevinNR
37m
#ThisIsCommunism pic.twitter.com/vWs5L4K9Vf
Retweeted by Benjamin Weinthal
Then, luckily for us, Musacchio decided to install ceiling fans
in all the rooms, which was just right for the bearable
temperatures up in the hills.
And surprisingly, it is possible to live without television for a
week, as there are none at Montali.
It is inexpressibly wonderful to get away from the mind­
numbing horrors of the daily news and pretend nothing is
happening half a world away.
The day at Montali starts with an elegant breakfast served in
the brick­and­wood­decorated dining room. No eggs on toast
here, but freshly baked croissants, marvelous ciabatta with
butter and a dish emerging from the kitchen that varies every
day, whether homemade granola and yogurt or buckwheat
pancakes with raspberry syrup.
The high point of the day is dinner, served at eight in the
evening. The guests meet outside under the pergola for an
aperitif and to chat until Musacchio rings the bell for dinner.
The choosing of the wine and the opening of the bottles is a
long, drawn out ceremony in itself, while we all wait patiently
to see what wonders Malu has created in the kitchen. She
rarely emerges, but in compensation is considered to be one
of the best vegetarian chefs in the world. Musacchio is the
front man, interacting with the guests in his Gucci shoes and
casual Armani clothes.
He takes the platters brought in by the wait staff and lays
them lovingly in front of the diners, explaining what they are
about to eat.
“This is timballo alla teramana,” he murmurs conspiratorially.
“It is constructed of five layers of crespelles and four
succulent vegetables.”
Before we demolish it, the dish is documented for posterity as
the cameras click away.
Three savory courses and one dessert ensure that one gets
up fully satisfied, and often slightly woozy, from the dining
table.
The entire day, between breakfast and dinner, can be
devoted to touring, and the location is ideal for reaching
many beautiful Italian towns, all with their medieval, walled
cities and magnificent cathedrals. One can spend all day
being a tourist and subsisting on a salad, knowing one of
Musacchio and Simoes’s great meals awaits you at the end
of the day.
One town that is a must to visit is Pitigliano, situated about 45
kilometers from Montali.
There has been a continuous Jewish presence there for
2,000 years and the old ghetto and synagogue are open to
the public. Here, in the area known as “Little Jerusalem,” you
can see a record of Jewish life in Italy in the well­displayed
exhibition, inspect the rooms that served as ritual bath,
abattoir and study rooms and visit the beautifully restored
synagogue.
You can meet one of the three remaining Jews in the village
and hear how they survived the Holocaust by being hidden in
the surrounding farms.
Montali is an ideal place to spend a restful Shabbat.
Musacchio will provide lunch if required and the place is even
quieter and more peaceful than usual. With all the other
guests off on their travels, you can sit by the pool and read,
walk around the 25­acre grounds and just chill out, waiting for
sundown and another great gourmet experience. Stay on top of the news ­ get the Jerusalem Post headlines
direct to your inbox!
Expand
Benjamin Weinthal
@BenWeinthal
39m
When will this end? Syria barrel bombs 'kill dozens
of civilians' in Aleppo. bbc.co.uk/news/world-mid…
Expand
JPost Opinion
43m
From Around The Web
You Might Also Like
Recommended by
Share this article
1
Like
1
JPost Services
0
0
Share
Send
Tweet
Add a comment...
Posting as Cosma
Musacchio (Change)
Comment
Also post on Facebook
Facebook social plugin
Your comment must be approved by a moderator before being
published on JPost.com. Disqus users can post comments
automatically.
Comments must adhere to our Talkback policy. If you believe that a
comment has breached the Talkback policy, please press the flag
icon to bring it to the attention of our moderation team.
Conference
Newsletter
Mobile Apps
Kotel Cam
JPost Alert
Premium
WHAT'S THIS?
ALSO ON THE JERUSALEM POST
US responds to Israel
uproar, says Kerry never
called for boycott
Fatah
wants Kerry
545 comments
prosecuted before ICC
for "threatening" Abbas
Report: Livni, Saudi
prince talk peace
process at Munich
Iran
says nuclear
talks
conference
27 comments
failure would be
'disaster' 142 comments
312 comments
0 comments
0
Start the discussion…
Newest
Share
Be the first to comment.
Subscribe
Add Disqus to your site
Sites Of Interest:
JPost sites:
Services:
JPost Conferences:
Information:
Email Marketing
Jerusalem Hotels
KKL­JNF
Poalim Online
BreitBart.com
Our Friends
Jerusalem Attractions
Jerusalem Tours
itraveljerusalem.com
Learn Hebrew
The Jerusalem Report
Our Magazines
JPost Edition Francaise
Green Israel
Christian World
Jerusalem Post Lite
Ulpan Online
JPost Magazines Terms
of Service
JPost Mobile Apps
JPost Premium
JPost Newsletter
JPost Toolbar
JPost News Ticker
JPost RSS feeds
JPost.com Archive
JPost Archives
JPost Alert
Find us on Google+
NYC Conference
Diplomatic Conference
Diplomatic Conference
2013
About Us
Feedback
Staff E­mails
Copyright
Sitemap
News Partners
Advertise with Us
Statistics
Ad Specs
Terms Of Service
Privacy Policy
About Us | Advertise with Us | Subscribe | Premium | Newsletter | RSS | Contact Us
All rights reserved © The Jerusalem Post 1995 ­ 2012