I emailed Guiseppe Caponecci, the owner of Taverna Castelluccio, the next day. But the village’s woes started before Covid: In August 2016, just one month after I had last been in Castelluccio, a string of earthquakes began a three-month tear through Central Italy, culminating in a big one that destroyed the town on October 30. The coronavirus, of course, had made Castelluccio, like much of Italy, off-limits to American travelers in 2020 and much of 2021. It was a view I had missed, almost painfully. This tiny hamlet perched on a high rock straddling the border of Umbria and Le Marche, overlooks central Italy’s vast and spectacular Great Plain, which, on this warm July afternoon, was in the middle of La Fioritura, the “flowering” of lentils that produces a massive rainbow carpet of red, blue, yellow and purple flowers. Where that was, though, was seated outdoors at Taverna Castelluccio, looking out at my favorite view of what is legitimately the most beautiful place on earth: the Piano Grande of Castelluccio di Norcia. So when those four crusty juicy grilled lamb chops arrived, all oozing that deep chocolate sheen of perfectly cooked meat, I almost forgot where I was. And yet, I had been thinking about the “agnello scottadito alla brace” for five long years.
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