By Our Editorial Staff
In Monteluco, a hotel-restaurant surrounded by trees, since 1921.
There is a type of hospitality that cannot be learned in Swiss hotel schools, but is inherited in the DNA.
It is what you find when, after driving up the winding road from Spoleto towards the sky, you arrive at AlbRistorante Ferretti.
Here, at an altitude of 800 meters, in the heart of a forest that was already sacred to the Romans, the Ferretti family has been doing exactly the same thing for over a hundred years: opening the door, lighting the fire, and making you feel at home.
More than a hotel, it is a bastion of humanity and nature, a Forest Hotel ante litteram, born well before the term became trendy. The structure seems to have asked the trees for permission before settling on the ground.
Just step over the threshold to be convinced: holm oak trunks literally enter some rooms, and the large windows frame the forest like living paintings. Light filters through the leaves, changing color with the hours—deep green in the morning, gold and copper at sunset, velvety black at night—while the air carries scents of moss, resin, and damp earth. “When you walk out the door, you enter the woods,” says Massimo. It’s not a metaphor: it’s everyday reality.
The 23 rooms are simple, old-fashioned in the noblest sense of the term: no cold, impersonal design, but comfortable beds, windows wide open to the birdsong and that crisp air that enters in the morning, which is worth more than any air conditioning. It is the place where digital detox happens naturally, not by imposition.
The beating heart is the restaurant, a true celebration of Umbrian ingredients. Black truffles reign supreme over handmade strangozzi pasta, but the cuisine is straightforward and seasonal.
The à la carte menu and tasting menu are honest and robust, designed to restore body and spirit. Everything is served in generous portions, accompanied by Montefalco red wine that melts away fatigue and opens up conversation. Dining in the Winter Garden surrounded by woods, with a roaring fireplace where meat is cooked in full view, is a true act of gastronomic meditation; in summer, the outdoor terrace transforms every meal into total refreshment.
Meanwhile, Massimo Ferretti passes between the tables: a check on the grill, a greeting, and—if time allows—a story about his collection of vintage motorcycles, some at the entrance, others kept between the bar and the dining room. The evening flows like this, without haste.
Breakfast is no less impressive. Generous enough to set off on the trails or simply to savor the slowness of the morning.
In addition to eating—which here is already a serious way of being in the world—there is everything else. First of all, the daily exercise of bien vivre: walking without a specific destination, slipping into a shady path, following the arrows of the Via di Francesco just because it invites you to do so. Exploring Franciscan hermitages and symbolic places such as the Belvedere, discovering unspoiled nature and a thousand-year-old spiritual history.
Then there is time without a clock. The large lawns not far from the hotel spontaneously invite you to relax: read on the grass, sunbathe, let the children play freely. An open field welcomes impromptu soccer or basketball games, while ping-pong and outdoor games make it the ideal place for families. Dogs are welcome guests, free to explore and rest in the shade, and the outdoor tables transform even an informal break into a moment of complete reconnection with nature.
The Ferretti hotel is also the perfect base camp for bikers and trekkers. On the one hand, there are enduro and trail riders, who find their nirvana here: natural toboggans carved into the rock, technical passages between ferns and roots, and single tracks that plunge into the “ditch” offering a flow unique in Central Italy.
A few kilometers away, there is also the Spoleto-Norcia Cycle Route. Created on the route of an old narrow-gauge railway, it is considered one of the most spectacular cycle paths in Europe. Dark tunnels carved into the mountain and viaducts suspended in the void offer 50 km of pure wonder.
For those who prefer to travel by car (or motorbike), Spoleto is just a stone’s throw away, the Valnerina valley runs just below and the Marmore Falls are a natural detour. Assisi, Montefalco, Bevagna… can all be reached in a short time.
The return to Ferretti completes the circle: a table set for dinner, the surrounding greenery, and that rare feeling of having lived the day at the right pace: your own.
Albergo Ristorante Ferretti, where time slows down, the forest listens, and hospitality returns to what it should always be: a simple, authentic, deeply human gesture.
Info: Albergo Ristorante Ferretti, Monteluco di Spoleto 20, Spoleto (PG) / www.albergoferretti.com / Tel: (+39) 0743.49849 / Cell: (+39) 348.89.10.279 (Massimo)
