Where to eat in Finale Ligure and Varigotti, Liguria: the wonderful Valleponci restaurant
Varigotti is a beautiful town in the municipality of Finale Ligure, on the Riviera di Ponente, in the province of Savona. A small medieval village founded by the Saracens, it's worth a visit, as is the entire area, from Finale Ligure to Noli (here's where to eat in Noli).
Where to eat in Finale Ligure and Varigotti
Not just a simple restaurant, but much more: it's an old farmhouse renovated about ten years ago, surrounded by 50 hectares of woods, meadows, and vineyards, in the heart of a protected valley, twenty minutes from Varigotti.
Valleponci, cuisine, vineyards and hospitality
The first thing to say is important: if you're afraid of winding, narrow trails, or if you don't want to venture onto dirt country roads, forget it. It's only 20 minutes from Varigotti, but it's quite a challenge. Valleponci lies in a valley hidden from men but not from the Gods, and it presents itself as a little paradise. We went there for dinner one evening in July, but there are also four rooms and an apartment, and it's the ideal place for hikers and bikers.
The tavern
Inside, it looks like an old tavern—not a new one with old touches, but a genuinely old one. Outside, it's enchanting. Under a pergola, surrounded by greenery, there are 7-8 tables where you can dine in a country atmosphere. And the welcome and food don't disappoint.
Giorgio, a Ligurian with twenty years of experience in advertising in Milan, takes the orders at the tables: "At a certain point, I started turning down fur ads for ethical reasons. Then I turned down others, and then I decided I wasn't really into that industry. So, with my wife and some other partners, we took this abandoned farmhouse and renovated it.
The menu is explained verbally but also written on the in-house blackboard. The cuisine is typically Ligurian, solid, without flights of fancy but also without sloppiness.
We ordered a €35 tasting menu, which we carefully washed down with two bottles of wine produced right in the Valleponci vineyards: a macerated white Pigato, the Eretico giallo, and a Granaccia. Both are straightforward, sincere wines, tasting of grapes and earth, freshly bottled, so still very young but with a solid future.
To start, we'll have a mixed antipasto: Russian salad, stuffed eggplant, mackerel timbale with leeks and hazelnuts, and fresh goat cheese "from our friend Nino": €13. A hearty, more than satisfying dish, with special mention for the timbale and salad.
The following menu included beetroot cream soup (10 euros), testaroli with pesto (10), borage ravioli (11), green tagliolini with hen ragu (15). We had an excellent Ligurian-style rabbit, with trumpet salad and tomatoes (15).
Ultimately, Valleponci's cuisine is authentic, flavored with aromatic herbs, and strongly vegan-friendly, including a few meat dishes. It's truly a special, unique place, worth trying at least once in your life.
Valleponci, Val Ponci, 22, Finale Ligure, Italy.
