Trattoria da Rosa (00 39 0733 260124), Via Armaroli, 17, Macerata. Salumificio Passamonti (00 39 0734 656109), Via G Leopardi, 10, Monte Vidon Combatte.What to seePalio della Rana (frog race) in Fermignano. The race through town with a frog on a wheelbarrow celebrates the village's independence from Urbino in 1607, on the Sunday after Easter.Further information . The Salento peninsula - the tip of the stiletto heel of Italy - is easy enough to miss After all, it is a region on the way to nowhere. I'd never heard of them the first time I visited Le Marche, which is a pity, for if I had I might well have been better prepared for the biting winter cold.
Emanuela lives in Urbania, one among hundreds of ravishing Marchegianan towns, and is the last known practitioner of the dark art of onion weather forecasting. Every New Year's Day, she selects 12 onions, one for each month of the year, sprinkles them with salt, and then, come 24 January, looks at them closely, and with copious amounts of ancestral wisdom, delivers her meteorological verdict.And so it is that I can divulge that the weather in Le Marche for 2005 will mostly be variable. Apart from September and October that is, when there will be, Emanuela informs us, bel tempo. Ah, the wisdom of Le Marche!William Black's most recent book is 'Al Dente - the Adventures of a Gastronome in Italy', published by Corgi at £7.99GIVE ME THE FACTSHow to get thereRyanair (0871 246 0000; flies from London Stansted to Ancona from £50 return.Where to stayHotel San Giovanni, via Barocci 13, Urbino (00 39 0722 2827), offers double rooms from €55 (£40) without breakfast. Senigallia is a beautiful town, with a profoundly overpriced and well-respected restaurant, La Madonnina del Pescatore; you might be better off, and heavier in the wallet, at Al Cuoco di Bordo Fano is worth a wander too.
Meanwhile, the port of Ancona may not be the prettiest - it is busy, and dusty - but it is a great place to eat that most enigmatic of Italian culinary creations, stoccafisso - or wind-dried cod. It was a stalwart of international trade, shipped down with fur and amber from Scandinavia since the Middle Ages.Then there are Emanuela Forlini's onions. The debate rages on.Driving southwards to Ascoli Piceno, a town as famous for stuffing olives as for its beautiful central piazza, I stopped at a curiously named village called Monte Vidon Combatte, on the recommendation of a keen local gastronome. Here I was told to look for a small shop run by the Passamonti family, who produce hams, a superb lightly smoked salami called ciauscolo, as well as the most exquisite guanciale, or pig's jowl.Guanciale is not only a tastier cut than the cured pork belly, or pancetta, that is now so widely available, but for all of those who are just gagging to make a really authentic spaghetti all'amatriciana, it is guanciale that you need.Although much of the Marche coast is dead and dull at this time of year, there are places worth exploring. When my pancetta stocks run low, I tend to plot and plan a lightning trip to Italy to fill those vacant spaces in the fridge.
