salty, easygoing, seaside, honest

Cesenatico

A canal-side Adriatic fishing town of piadina, grilled catch and harbour-front fritto misto.

Cesenatico is the Romagna coast at its most likeable — a fishing port whose Leonardo-designed canal still cradles a fleet of painted sailing boats, with the smell of the Adriatic and the griddle hanging over everything. This is piadina country, the warm flatbread folded around squacquerone cheese and prosciutto and eaten standing up, and the seafood here is plainspoken: grilled, fried, or thrown into a brodetto stew with whatever the morning brought in. La Buca proves the coast can do real refinement without losing the salt, while Osteria Bartolini packs long tables for fritto misto by the harbour. It is a town that takes its eating seriously and its airs not at all.

Highlights

Piadina romagnola folded around squacquerone and prosciutto Fritto misto and grilled Adriatic catch by the historic canal port Brodetto, the fishermen's mixed-fish stew La Buca's polished coastal cooking that keeps its salt Painted sailing boats on the canal Leonardo da Vinci helped design

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