La Bandiera, the Spadone family

We are in Civitella Casanova, in the rolling hills of Pescara, between the Maiella and Gran Sasso mountains. Here, in the late 1970s, Anna and Giovanni decided to convert a salt and tobacco retailer shop into a restaurant. In the 1980s, their son Marcello, who comes on the scene who with his experience at the gourmet restaurants Albereta by Gualtiero Marchesi and Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia in Milan, revitalized traditional dishes with innovative techniques, while his wife Bruna started a garden with local vegetables and herbs next to the restaurant. In 2011, La Bandiera enters the world of Italian haute cuisine: the Michelin star arrives.
Today, having reached the third generation, this family-run activity continues with Mattia’s creative flair in the kitchen and Alessio’s ease in the dining hall.

Villa Maiella, the Tinari family

The history of Villa Maiella begins in the 1960’s. We are in Guardiagrele, a village on the slopes of Maiella mountain, when Ginetta and Arcangelo open the doors of what was at that time a modest tavern. Then in the 1980’s the baton passes to their son Peppino who returned to Abruzzo after an important experience in the kitchen of chef Giovanni Spaventa at Hotel Cipriani in Venice. He is joined in the kitchen by his wife Angela, excellent in the pastry art. In 2009, the turning point with the Michelin Star and the decision to undertake a free-range breeding of black pigs. As the years pass also Peppino and Angela’s sons, Arcangelo and Pascal, join the team of Villa Maiella, who today can be found respectively in the kitchen or in the dining hall.