You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition.  What you’ll discover will be wonderful.  What you’ll discover is yourself.  — Alan Alda

So you go to fine restaurants and subscribe to all the “really-this-takes-12-hours-to-make-but-it’s-so-worth-it” fancy gourmet magazines. You’ve even tried the latest wack-o craze from Britain, food foams. Fine. But for a completely different (and eminently saner and more satisfying) kind of foodie experience, I invite you to give the agriturismo La Tavola Marche (MAR-kay) a go. Lovingly run by a young, hard-working American couple, Ashley and Jason Bartner, La Tavola Marche (inn, restaurant and cooking school) is a jewel in the crown of the rugged Italian countryside. And here they have discovered themselves — and so much more.

First, what’s an Agriturismo?

La Tavola Marche — front door

The agriturismo movement began out of necessity as small farmers started to abandon their farms for the cities in the 1950s. To keep the traditions alive, the government codified the agriturismo movement in 1985 and many abandoned buildings were restored, allowing farmers to augment their income from the farm, and for travelers to experience the bounty of rural life in Italy.

Basically, an agriturismo is a working farm that rents rooms and serves food that it produces. To qualify for the tax advantages provided by an agriturismo status, a farm must recycle most of what it raises or grows back into the house. Eighty percent of the food that Jason serves at La Tavola Marche is from his own land or the land of his neighbors.

Jason, a French Culinary Institute-trained chef and Ashley, a former actress and hospitality maven in New York City, found the old farmhouse, Ca’Camone, in 2007 and immediately  knew they wanted to create La Tavola Marche there. They fashioned comfortable living spaces, developed their cooking school and kitchen and have been virtually adopted by the locals over the last four years. The two studied Italian before they left the U.S. and live as close to an authentic Italian lifestyle as possible in this off-the-beaten-track location, bartering with the neighboring farmers for game and recipes and helping each other with projects. In turn, Jason’s cooking has gained quite a reputation among the Marchese, who are often present at Thursday night pizza parties in the summer and at the restaurant itself throughout the year. There is no higher praise.

Ashley says, “When you think you’ve gone too far, you’re almost here!”

They have most definitely left the “city of their comfort” by coming to Le Marche, a stunningly beautiful part of

Try this at home: Zucchini Carpaccio!

Italy that most Americans never see because most tours concentrate on the holy trinity of Rome, Florence and Venice. I urge you to be bold.

Because while the house is some five kilometers off the road, La Tavola Marche is not only a calming respite in the midst of our “elaborate” lives (thank you, Elton John), it is also extremely well-positioned for a versatile holiday, being close enough to visit Umbrian hill towns like Spoleto and Gubbio and very nearby to Urbania and Urbino, a well-known UNESCO World Heritage Site. Urbino’s Casa Rafaella and the Palazzo Ducale are must-sees, and the city is truly one of the most important in all of Italy for anyone in search of great Italian art and architecture. So while it may seem a bit remote, the pool in season is a big draw for the kids and the day trips that are available have something for everybody.

The food’s the thing

The dearly departed Foghorn Leghorn

But when you come to La Tavola Marche, you come to eat — and to learn. Jason is an excellent teacher and I can honestly say that I have never learned more about cooking than I did here. And I’m proud to say that I’ve made several of his dishes back home. In fact, my birthday present from Tim this summer was a de Buyer mandoline, so I can cut those veggies either wafer-thin or in uniform chunks, like many recipes require.

Anyway, when we arrived at the kitchen for our class, the evening’s menu was posted: Antipasti, Primo, Secondo and Dolce. We were going to do it all! Jason has a simple philosophy about the local cucina povere: let the food speak for itself. Don’t drown it in sauce, don’t cook it to death. Let the tomato be a tomato — a little salt, pepper and olive oil, and you’re done. Simple, flavorful. We cooked seven different items and they were all fantastic.

We had just come from a week in Abruzzo and, as in the fabulous neighboring region to the south, the food in

Sharon & Jerry, hard at work on dinner

Marche is hearty, local and very fresh. Because we had asked for a lot of vegetables after the meat-rich Abruzzo experience, Jason happily complied, with lentils, grilled yellow peppers, stuffed eggplant, homemade tagliatelle with porcini and fresh peas, a tomato bread and basil soup, zucchini carpaccio . . . it was a true delight. And his homemade salamis, coupled with the local cheeses, were outstanding. Ashley, the consummate hostess, finished it all off nicely with her homemade digestivo, after-dinner drinks made from a variety of nuts and fruits, like walnut and prune, that were the perfect ending to a perfect meal.

The farmhouse’s five self-catering suites can hold up to 22 people. They’ve hosted weddings, family reunions, language classes and girl’s getaways and will tailor cooking school and local winery tours, truffle and mushroom hunting excursions and olive oil and other farm visits to suit your needs. They’ve even got a chef friend with a boat  in the port town of Fanno who will take you out for lunch or dinner and cook freshly caught fish while you swim in the crisp blue waters of the Adriatic.

Discover yourself — and save the date!

Ashley, Linda & Jason — are we having too much fun?

But the biggest attraction for me and Tim (and our friends Sharon and Jerry, who are getting just a tad snarky now that I don’t mention them every time we go someplace together) was the fact that, to our ancient eyes, it seems like Ashley and Jason have found the secret to happiness. They were old enough (or wise enough) to know that they wanted something beyond the 9-to-5 grind and were young enough (or brave enough) to let go of the proverbial rock and just take a chance. When I asked her how she did it, Ashley simply said, “I thought, why not? We can always go back if it fails.”  The older you get, the more difficult it is to make big decisions like this. I know this from first-hand experience.

So they gladly quit their jobs, packed their things, sent over what they needed and got down to starting a new life. They haven’t been back to the U.S. in four years. They’re making a name for themselves (see who’s making big noises about the place!) and they’re living life to the fullest.

Now, it’s not all collecting checks and good reviews. They rise very early, tend to flocks and crops, keep the menu fresh and updated, deal with snow and frozen pipes, clean and shop and take reservations and deal with customers and cooking schools, meet the press and clean the pool and chop the wood and drive on unpaved roads and have a heck of a time getting internet service and basically do everything they have to do to live and succeed in a foreign language. Not easy. And we get to see it all through their eyes and benefit from their advance work. Be grateful for them and visit them if you have a chance.

I’m hoping to take a group to visit Jason and Ashley next fall — September or October. It will be great. Costs and itinerary will be coming in the next month or so. But save the date, so to speak. You won’t want to miss it, and space is limited.

Trust me, this is the way to see Italy. After you’ve seen the big cities, discover something that you might not find so easily in the guidebooks. It’s hugely rewarding — and very delicious.

Buon viaggio!

Linda Dini Jenkins

Linda Dini Jenkins is a card-carrying Italophile, travel planner, freelance writer, and amateur photographer. Travel is her passion, so writing about her travels just comes naturally. She hopes all her travelers find a way to express their joys, surprises, and fears as they travel and gives every traveler a nifty journal to help smooth the way. Learn more…