Food Shopping
From Villas In The Niccone Valley
All villas except La Rondinaia (see bootom of page):
Mercatale di Cortona
Mercatale has small Conad supermarket, a bakers (Il Dolce Forno) and a family run butcher’s, Macelleria Trabalza. Shops shut in Mercatale on Wednesday afternoon. If the local unsalted white bread is not to your taste you can buy two sorts of brown bread at Il Dolce Forno,, prokorn or provita, if you would like white salted bread, ask for “pane salato”.
Lisciano Niccone
Lisciano Niccone has a butcher’s and two small supermakets
Spedalicchio
The nearest small shop is R&R Alimentari in Spedalicchio. Although more expensive than large supermarkets it offers the convenience of a shorter journey and has a good selection of cured meats, cheeses, olives and other antipasti on the delicatessen counter. Be prepared to be patient, it’s a village shop and sometimes people aren’t in a hurry, stopping for a chat with the owner. Closed lunchtimes, also Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.
Molino Vitelli
A couple of kilometres towards Umbertide you will find Cantina I Girasoli di Sant’Andrea in the small village of Molino Vitelli. You can buy bottles of the vineyard’s excellent wines and also get decent table wine sold in boxes or direct from the tank (bring your own container). As well as wine you can buy olive oil and speciality products such as truffle pastes. Closes for lunch.
Umbertide
There are two big supermarkets in Umbertide, Eurospin and the Coop both in the new part of town. There is a Wednesday morning market in the old town centre (centro storico) and a Saturday farmers’ market. Big supermarkets are open through the lunch time hours unless it’s Sunday, when case they do close for lunch.
Eurospin is a discount supermarket but has surprisingly good vegetables, fruit, meat and fish, beer is good value but in my experience most of the wines aren’t worth the (very cheap) price.
The Coop has a bigger selection, is a little more expensive and has a loyalty card scheme which excludes visitors from many of the offers, you have to weigh vegetables BEFORE you get to the checkout.
Wednesday market has many stalls selling fruit, vegetables, cheese, fish, cured meats and a local speciality, porchetta. Porchetta is the meat from a whole deboned pig, stuffed with garlic and fennel and slow cooked in a wood fired oven. The market packs up around 12:30.
Saturday market is food only, small producers bring fresh vegetables, cheeses, cured meats, honey, generally it’s whatever is in season.
From La Rondinaia
Shopping from La Rondinaia, the towns of Pietralunga and Città di Castello are roughly equidistant in opposite directions:
Pietralunga
There are two supermarkets in Pietralunga
EMI
Tigre
Città di Castello
Gala is a very large supermarket close to the Città di Castello Nord exit from the E45.
Co-op much smaller than Umbertide Co-op
Eurospin discount supermarket smaller than Umbertide’s Eurospin
Market on Tuesday, Thursday ans Saturday in the centro storico