In Umbria there is a place where two young people have created a marvellous oasis

Federica Pasetto is a thirty-year-old with a passion for pastry-making and leavened products. In Rome, she earned a reputation for her work at the restaurant Molto (where she met Davide) and for her experience with baker and pizzaiolo Luca Pezzetta. Davide Barone, also in his thirties, after years spent working under Heinz Beck at the restaurant La Pergola in Rome, met Federica in the kitchen (also at Molto) and fell in love with her. Together they decided to take on the legacy of her family, devoting every day to caring for the vast land that would become their life project.

It was in 2020 that Federica inherited from her grandfather the ancient farmhouses once owned by the Chigi family. She received them beautifully restored and furnished them with taste, keeping intact the aura of rural elegance that distinguishes them. Period furniture, frames, mirrors and four-poster beds adorn the five rooms and the suite, which is spread over two floors in an ancient 200-year-old watchtower. Everything is truly enchanting, even the most challenging part of the story: when the two moved in, they knew very well that fourteen hectares of land require daily dedication. But they were not intimidated. Today, Borgo dei Cipressi is a farmhouse that grows wheat and sunflowers, produces extra virgin olive oil, fruit and vegetables at zero food miles, and rears hundreds of poultry, including hens of various breeds and peacocks. From this raw material comes the gastronomic offering that Davide develops with endless creativity in the restaurant L’Aurora, officially opened in 2023.

“We cultivate the land, we take care of the animals and of the spaces where we love to welcome people. Personally, I adore looking after our guests every day, sowing and harvesting what the land offers us,” says Federica, with the vibrant enthusiasm of someone who deeply loves what she does. A love she shares with Davide’s strength and vision: “I can’t live without cooking. We have about thirty covers indoors and, in the summer season, the same number outdoors. Managing them alone in the kitchen is demanding, but I change the menu often, constantly stimulating my creative side.”

The stone farmhouses are two. The main house has on the ground floor a large room with an imposing fireplace where breakfast is served in the morning; the bedrooms are on the upper floor. At the back stands the tower with an independent entrance, inside which the suite unfolds over two levels with two bedrooms. Around it, lavender flowerbeds in the shade of tall cypress trees. In front of the main building, a white marble swimming pool reserved for guests; a few steps lower, descending from the square, you reach the L’Aurora restaurant, with an outdoor area immersed in greenery and an indoor dining room set into the hillside. Here, Federica’s style is palpable and, seated at the table among family ceramics, carefully arranged place settings and furnishings, you feel part of a scene of refined simplicity. If in the kitchen Davide is an agricultural machine of gastronomy, the service is gracefully entrusted to Federica and to Gloria, a proudly local twenty-six-year-old who sees her future right here, at zero food miles.

What you eat at Borgo dei Cipressi

The menu is essential, coherent and engaging. Behind every dish there is a local supply chain project: the only raw materials not directly produced on site—meat and cheese—come from local farms. While waiting for the courses, you are served house-produced extra virgin olive oil to enjoy with Federica’s homemade bread, accompanied by a crispy cannolo of aubergine parmigiana. Among the starters, the sweet-and-sour beetroot with almond yoghurt and toasted almonds stands out for its contrasts and textures. Bite after bite, comes the spelt focaccia with pulled wild boar: it’s hard to find words that do justice to the dish, with the boar moist and lightly smoked, tender and persistent thanks to the rich, aromatic summer truffle cream.

I would go back tomorrow just to eat a whole tray of it. But it was just as well, because I continued with a delicious short pasta with sweet garlic, courgette cream, olive powder and fermented lemon; an excellent aubergine cappellaccio with ‘nduja sauce—fresh like a gazpacho—and roasted lemon; and finally, indulgent duck egg tagliatelle with rabbit alla cacciatora. A swing of direct, sincere flavours, without the need for explanation, ending with a wild boar Milanese served with lemon mayonnaise and pickled vegetables. Soft, dry and crunchy, accompanied by a sweet-and-sour pepper: delightful even on a full stomach. For dessert, first a goat’s ricotta ice cream with wild raspberries, then—why not—an opulent yet fresh amaretto semifreddo enclosed in a hazelnut and salted caramel rocher.

Borgo dei Cipressi is a refined residence, attentive to every detail (thanks also to a messaging service that allows guests to order whatever they want, whenever and wherever they like), an accessible luxury that finds coherence in the cuisine of the L’Aurora restaurant. Here there is a sense of attention to aesthetics, a centrality of recognisable flavour, technique in the service of lightness, and great care in the management of time: a mantra that Federica and Davide pursue in the change they desired, sought and finally achieved. A hard-earned success rewarded by the appreciation they have received, even from a community that often tends more to compete than to welcome.

Following a white-stone paved path, before reaching the car park to head home, I stopped to look at the green valley stretching out before me. Sitting in the shade of a reed screen surrounding the second pool, I thought to myself that Umbria really is splendid. Especially when experienced like this.