Restaurant Emilia in Portonovo

Restaurant in Portonovo, Restaurant in riviera of Conero

• Mediterranean
  atmospheres

  • The white pebbles on the beach, the blue sea of the bay and the green colour of southern lands cactuses draw a friendly and discreet environment where the Mediterranean style can be read through a contemporary and minimalist key. Emilia directly overlooks the sea within the bay of Portonovo and is situated at the foot of Mount Conero, a protected natural reserve and park. Under the shadow of thin canes, the gazebo is the ideal place to have breakfast, sip an aperitif or taste sandwiches, piadina wraps, fruit salads, cakes and seasonal cold dishes. The tables of the restaurant are arranged with great care in the one and only veranda of the bay directly overlooking the sea. Here, simple materials like wood, cotton, porcelain and glass combine in essential shapes that create a relaxing and elegant atmosphere, where the real protagonists are the flavours, the perfumes and the colours of the sea. Through a photo gallery, the indoor dining room tells the story of old Portonovo and offers a cool shelter to those who shun the heat, maybe to have a quick drink. From sunrise to sunset on the bay, thanks to its bar for breakfasts, snacks and aperitifs, deckchairs, big umbrellas and boat trips for guests, a restaurant and a take-away service for boats, Emilia is the ideal place to spend a day in a unique setting or just to carve out some great little moments of peace.

• Tastes and perfumes
  from the sea

  • The restaurant Emilia offers traditional local dishes, personally looked after and followed step by step by Marisina, Emilia's younger daughter, heir and guardian of her mother's recipes, amongst which the first of all is spaghetti with wild moscioli. The wild mussel or Mytilus galloprovincialis has been one of Slow Food presidia since 2004: it is a sort of mussel or mytilus which naturally breeds on the submerged rocks along the coast going from Pietralacroce to the border sea line between Numana and Sirolo. Beside this main dish, you can enjoy excellent dishes based on fresh homemade pasta provided by a local laboratory, together with cold and hot appetizers. Fresh fish, bought daily according to the seasonality of each product, sometimes joins the personal catch of Emilia. At propitious times at dawn, Franco, Marisina's husband, and their son Edoardo, go out for fishing and, depending on the period, they come back with soles, squills, cuttle fish, grey flathead mullets, breams, striped sea breams, tub gurnards and sardines. Unique at Emilia are the mixed fish grillades - still grilled on the barbecue - and the mixed fried fish from the Adriatic Sea - a mix of fried fish with fish bones and without. And more: mussels marinara and au gratin, wild vegetables, fish broth and boiled mixed fish accompanied by homemade mayonnaise. And last but not least homemade desserts, specially prepared with fresh, genuine and natural ingredients. The cellar has a selection of wines with a particular fondness for the local ones - all the DOC labels of white and red wines from the main producers of Marches are in the cellar - but the guests also have the possibility to choose among the most known Italian labels.

• Emilia, a woman of the land
  borrowed by the sea

  • Emilia, whose real name was Giulia Palmina Gasparoni, was born in the hamlet Poggio di Ancona on August 30th 1899. She was a tiny woman, but as strong as an oak tree, and her name is indissolubly linked to the history of Portonovo bay. Together with her husband Emilio Dubbini, she started a simple wine bar activity in the hamlet of Poggio - which later on became today's Osteria del Poggio. A short time after that, in 1929, Emilia herself made up her mind to go down to the beach to organize lunches and refreshment moments for the first tourists - some rich people from Ancona who loved staying on the beach - even if at a first moment she remained at Poggio. Finally she went to the Fonte (the water source at Portonovo bay), where she used to provide tourists with shadow, water and, only later on, some sandwiches in a basket. The first real restaurant was opened next to the source of drinkable water, where today stands the Hotel Restaurant La Fonte. That was only a temporary setting which, nevertheless, immediately became a reference point for both the few inhabitants of the bay and the growing number of visitors. In 1950, following the compulsory moving out from that place, Emilia finally settled on the bay and the restaurant Da Emilia was created directly on the beach. But Emilia had always had the idea of a hotel in her mind, a hotel which had to be separated from the restaurant, thus giving a further proof of her enterprise capability and great intuition. The hotel Emilia was built between 1963 and 1964 on the hills overlooking the bay and today the hotel, together with the Osteria del Poggio, is run by Raffaella Fiorini, Emilia's grandchild and Elia's daughter. The activity settled by Emilia at Portonovo did change the outlines of that inhospitable and marshy territory which then transformed itself into an area of natural value. Besides, and at the same time, it modified the life of Emilia's family and of local people, too. The restaurant at the bay naturally passed from mother's to daughter's hands. Maria Luisa, named Marisina, is Emilia's younger daughter and she was always side by side with her mother at the bay. Today it is her family who receive guests and visitors: Marisina is in the kitchen, her daughter Federica takes care of the dining room, Marisina's husband, Franco, serves guests at the tables and entertains them with past memories, stories and little flowery or fruity gifts, Edoardo, their son, devotes himself to the beach and organizes boat trips for the guests who want to visit the bay. Here, on the sea-shore, at the foot of the mountain, many well-known people from the world of culture, art, show business and jet set have come for a stroll, both in past times and today: Ave Ninchi, Fausto Coppi and his White Lady, Walter Chiari, Rudolf Nurejev, Corrado, Mina and Nilde Jotti. And more: the Prince Charles, the Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoia, Lech Walesa, Giorgio Panariello, Piero Pelu', Virna Lisi, Teo Teocoli, Mario Cipollini, Milly Carlucci and Lucio Dalla. At the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the restaurant, and following Marisina's desire to tell and transmit such an important and special story like hers, on September 13th 2009 the book "Il mestolo di Emilia" by Marco Giovagnoli was presented to the public, accompanied by Controcanto (a group singing and playing old traditional melodies), a show of Argentine tango and some live touching and exciting memories from the past.

• Portonovo
  Beach

  • Amidst the perfume of brooms, pittosporums, salty air and colours that beat time of every season, the bay opens with its beautiful little beaches in front of the sea, which joins its thousand nuances to those you can admire on the limestone cliff and the imposing promontory dominating the bay. The stretch of land called Portonovo - formed after a landslide fallen from Mount Conero at Pian Grande in a remote time - always shines thanks to its white pebbles of Conero limestone rock continuously smoothed by the waves. Waters are clear, perfect for diving and observing the sea bed and its inhabitants. Also those who prefer to remain near the shore can however see anemones, echinoderma and mytils. Emilia offers its guests the possibility of hiring deckchairs and big umbrellas or visiting the bay on Edoardo's boat. The bar is open from morning to evening for breakfasts, snacks, for a coffee or an aperitif. The restaurant offers excellent traditional dishes for both lunch and dinner. The take-away service for boats is available during all the season.

• Portonovo bay and
  the Park of Mount Conero

  • The well-known tourist destination of Portonovo bay is plunged in a wonderful landscape of unspoiled nature and stretches inside the Regional Natural Park of Mount Conero, within a natural environment still untouched, where the Mediterranean scrub touches the clear waters of the sea. This stretch of land, which formed after a landslide fallen from Mount Conero at Pian Grande in a remote time, always shines thanks to its white pebbles of Conero limestone rock continuously smoothed by the waves. Two brackish water little lakes, rich in legends, add to the unique environment, partly transformed into a total natural reserve. The territory of Portonovo, included in the area of Mount Conero and inhabited since pre-historical times, has always followed the Mount history: it belonged to Piceni, Dorian peoples, Romans, Byzantines, then to the Pope, to France and finally to Italy. The lovely little church of Santa Maria of Portonovo is a masterpiece of Romanesque art of the XI century. On Portonovo beach, where Turkish pirates often landed and plundered, stand the Guard Tower, built in the 18th century to defend the coast from piracy, the Napoleonic Fort, a former military rampart now transformed into a hotel, and the De Bosis Tower, built in 1716 by Pope Clemens XI of the family Albani. The Regional Natural Park of Mount Conero includes a stretch of high coast and a wide inland hill zone with beautiful landscapes and a rich history, for a total area of 6011 hectares shared among the municipalities of Ancona, Camerano, Sirolo and Numana. Along the coast some coves, covered with white limestone pebbles from Mount Conero, are only reachable on foot or from the sea. The Regional Park, created in 1987 to protect the varied flora, fauna and cultural treasures of the area, boasts many botanical peculiarities and has become an interesting destination for natural walking, bike riding and for bird watching. Birds represent the most remarkable part of the fauna: there are more than 200 species - migratory, non-migratory and wintering - amongst which you can observe peregrine falcons, pallid swifts, eagles, storks and honey buzzards. In the brackish lakes small and rare little shellfish live. The Mediterranean scrub represents the most typical feature of the vegetation in the park, with its characteristic wild herbs, once collected and dried in the sun by the local people, the woods of holm oak trees, laurels, European hop-hornbeams, oaks, phyllireas, terebinths, Hungarian maples and European hollies. On the mountain slopes which are more exposed to the sun you can find manna ash trees together with pine trees, cypresses and cedars - planted by men - whereas the limestone cliffs are home to the most valuable species in the park such as the prickly juniper, the euphorbia dendroides and the euphorbia veneta.

• Where we are
  and contacts

  • Ristorante Emilia
    di Dubbini Maria Luisa
    baia di Portonovo
    60129 Ancona Italy
    partita iva 00459870424
    
    tel. e fax +39 071 801109
    tel. invernale +39 071 801328
    
    info@ristoranteemilia.it
    aperto da aprile ad ottobre
    chiuso il lunedi escluso agosto

    Web Design DavidSalvatori.com