Restaurant Ida - An Oasis into the Sea

Modestly, sometimes, we say that if the Rizzoli family has promoted the island of Ischia, the Pesce family promoted the Maronti Beach. By other means, naturally. However, the buying of the wooden stage used for the movie "Cleopatra" was a big deal. It was the first '60s. Angelo Pesce and his wife Ida had opened a restaurant post at Maronti when there weren't neither any buildings nor any roads down there.

It was a pioneeristic choice, and the restaurant, if we want to be accurate, was little more than a small shed. The wood taken from the dismantled stage were used to improve it. At the time, the specialty of the house was the rabbit, cooked "all'ischitana", while shrimps and prawns were rare.

With the time passing, the tendence has been inverted, and today at Ida's fish dishes have taken the lead. Which goes along with the family name (nomen omen, according to the Latins) (Pesce means Fish in italian). Originary of Monte Cotto, small sector of Barano. Actually, four Pesce brothers are working into the restaurant (Giovanni, Aldo, Pina, Gabriella). Newer recipes have been added to the traditional ones, and they have all been appreciated by the customers.

Mediterranean kitchen was done here, even when the Americans had not made it yet a trend. And it will go on, not only to respect blindly the tradisions, but also because we all think that not only secondary roads, but also main roads, very important to describe the culture of a territory, cross their path with the local kitchen!

So, Have a nice meal, and See you at Ida's.

Gianni and Paola Mura