Grandinetti Hotel

Grandinetti is a roomy, mostly empty hotel that seems to be used mainly for wedding receptions. It has a bit of a southern Italian Shining feel, but on the Saturday night I stayed, the place came alive. There’s a wood-fired pizza oven, and locals often get pizzas to take away. The grandfather makes them, and the owner’s young son might be the one serving you. It really is a family business. In the kitchen, two people use local ingredients. I had penne with a mushroom ragù made from mushrooms freshly picked in Sila national park. The homemade wine, made from grapes bought in Ragusa, Sicily, did the job nicely, along with the usual antipasti and complimentary potato croquettes. Those croquettes make sense once you see how proud people in Sila are of their potatoes. They’re fresh, soft, fluffy breaded parcels, not anything like a microwave meal, and they disappear in a burst of flavor. The accommodation is standard Italian three-star fare, comfortable but not luxurious. There was a hot shower, everything was clean, and the TV was fiddly to operate and showed rubbish anyway. I thought €40 was reasonable, though after cycling all day I’d probably have paid €100 for a bale of hay to lie on. Italians know and admire Sila, but it’s less familiar to visitors from elsewhere. Maybe that should change. The owner says fewer people are getting married these days, and those who do often choose the sea. Grandinetti sits deep in gorgeous mountains that apparently aren’t glamorous enough for weddings. Fine by me, those marriages probably wouldn’t last long anyway. So go to Sila, drop by Grandinetti, maybe stay there, and get married in the mountains, or divorce is pretty much guaranteed.