This week in the Food Chain: how siblings Niko and Cristiana Romito turned a former Abruzzo monastery into a pioneering culinary complex.
Reale is what people have come to call a “destination restaurant,” though the term hardly captures the sense of arrival that comes with getting there. If you’re coming from abroad, the journey to Reale often involves a flight into Rome or Naples, followed by a drive that trades highways for narrower roads as the landscape opens into the hilly slopes and vineyards of inland Abruzzo. The journey pays off in slow revelation: a turn here, a climb there, until Casadonna appears.
Set in the Sangro Valley, on the fringes of the Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo, the former monastery is rendered in raw concrete and stone, with immaculate white walls, wide glass windows, and carved wooden doors. It feels at once severe and inviting, framed by vineyards, gardens, and orchards. The smartly restored structure remains monastic; the atmosphere leans unmistakably contemporary.
Continue reading
Access this and all our other premium articles by joining our membership program. Plans start at $6.50 per month and include twice-weekly digital features, access to in-person events, and more.
