L'Acquario Restaurant
L'Acquario has been the benchmark address for lake cuisine in Castiglione del Lago for decades, serving the freshest catch from Trasimeno — tench, perch, eel, and the local specialty tegamaccio — in a dining room that looks directly over the water. This is not tourist food; it is the real, centuries-old cooking of the lake fishermen.
What to Order
Start with the carpaccio di persico (thinly sliced raw perch dressed with local olive oil and capers) and follow it with tegamaccio, a robust mixed-fish stew cooked in a terracotta pot with tomato, garlic, and Sagrantino wine — a dish that has been eaten on these shores since the Middle Ages.
The pasta course of tagliatelle al ragù di tinca (tench ragù) is slow-cooked and deeply savoury; pair it with a carafe of chilled Colli del Trasimeno Grechetto, the local white DOC wine grown on the hillside vineyards just above the town.
The Setting
The restaurant occupies a converted building right on the lakefront promenade; ask for a table on the terrace and you will eat with the sound of water lapping a few metres below and the profile of Isola Polvese on the horizon.
Bookings are essential in July and August; outside peak season you can often walk in for lunch, which is the quieter and more relaxed service.
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