Restaurant in Oppeano, Italy
Tasting menus built for a special trip.
A Michelin-starred contemporary restaurant inside a working nature oasis near Verona, Famiglia Rana earns its €€€€ price with three distinct tasting menus from chef Francesco Sodano and a rural setting no city dining room can replicate. Book three to four weeks out minimum — limited hours and a 2024 star mean tables are genuinely scarce.
If you visited Famiglia Rana before early 2024, you are visiting a different restaurant now. The arrival of chef Francesco Sodano has shifted the kitchen's identity from familiar regional cooking toward something more personal and technically demanding. A second visit is not a repeat of the first — Sodano's three tasting menus each trace a distinct creative arc, and the question on a return trip is which of the three you choose, not whether the food has held up. It has, and Michelin's 2024 star confirms it. This is one of the more compelling reasons to make the drive to Oppeano, a small comune in the province of Verona that gives little away from the road.
The setting inside the Feniletto Nature Oasis is part of what makes Famiglia Rana a considered choice for a special occasion. The restaurant sits within a wooded garden, surrounded by an organic vegetable garden, an orchard, a farmyard, and stables. The air carries the scent of the kitchen garden — herbs, cut grass, earth , which connects directly to what arrives at the table on the "Vegetable" menu. This is not decorative countryside: the kitchen draws from the garden in a way that shapes the menu's structure. For a celebratory dinner where setting is part of the point, this is a stronger proposition than a city-centre fine dining room. Compared to Casa Perbellini 12 Apostoli in Verona, which offers greater urban convenience, Famiglia Rana trades accessibility for atmosphere and a sense of occasion that is harder to manufacture.
Sodano offers three tasting menus. "Ricomincio da tre" draws on his Campanian roots and the dishes that have defined his cooking to date , a useful entry point if this is your first visit. "The Doors" is where the kitchen pushes harder into creativity and research; the documented example of paccheri in chicory extraction sauce with a raw oyster and a seafood-derived botargo gives a sense of the register. "Vegetable" builds each course around the on-site kitchen garden, using bold combinations and less conventional cooking methods to make vegetables the main event rather than a supporting cast. All three are tasting-menu formats, so this is not a venue suited to those who prefer à la carte flexibility. If that format does not suit your group, Dal Pescatore in Runate offers Italian contemporary cooking in a similarly rural setting with a different structure.
On the question of booking: plan further ahead than you might expect for a restaurant in a village of this size. A Michelin star awarded in 2024 combined with limited operating hours , Wednesday and Thursday evenings only, with lunch added on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday , means the available covers are genuinely restricted. Wednesday and Thursday dinner slots fill quickly. If your schedule is flexible, Friday or Saturday lunch is worth considering: the kitchen is running the same menus, the setting in daylight reads differently, and competition for tables is marginally less intense than weekend dinner. Book at least three to four weeks out as a baseline, and further ahead for Saturday dinner or for groups. There is no booking information in the public record for an online reservations link, so contacting the restaurant directly is the most reliable route.
Famiglia Rana is a €€€€ venue, which at the tasting menu format means you are committing to a full evening at a price point that warrants some consideration. At this level, the honest comparison is against Le Calandre in Rubano or Piazza Duomo in Alba , restaurants with longer track records and more established reputations at the same price tier. Famiglia Rana's case rests on the specificity of its setting, the novelty of Sodano's creative direction, and the intimacy of a room described as warm and cosy rather than formal. If the experience you are booking is a landmark meal in a prestigious room, those longer-established names may serve better. If the experience is a genuinely personal and atmospherically distinctive dinner, Famiglia Rana earns its price. The Google rating of 4.6 across 289 reviews, combined with the Michelin star and a ranking of #558 in Opinionated About Dining's Leading Restaurants in Europe for 2025, indicates consistent quality rather than a one-season peak.
One practical note: Famiglia Rana does not operate as a delivery or takeaway venue, and the tasting menu format is entirely unsuited to off-premise dining. The cooking here is constructed for the room , the setting, the service, and the pacing of a multi-course meal are integral to what you are paying for. There is no version of this experience that travels. If you are visiting the Verona area and cannot make the reservation work, our full Oppeano restaurants guide covers further options, and our Oppeano hotels guide can help if you are planning to stay overnight and make an evening of it. For those travelling further, Uliassi in Senigallia and Enrico Bartolini in Milan represent comparable contemporary Italian ambition at the same price tier, each with a longer public record.
The service team is described as young but experienced, and the room itself is fitted with wooden furnishings and soft lighting , the kind of environment that works for a couple's anniversary dinner or a small group celebration without tipping into stiff formality. There is also, if the database is to be believed, a Tyrannosaurus rex tooth somewhere in the room. Whether or not that changes your calculus, it suggests an ownership personality that takes the experience seriously without taking itself too seriously , which is, in the end, a reasonable summary of what Famiglia Rana is offering.
Famiglia Rana is at Via Feniletto, 2, 37050 Oppeano VR, Italy, within the Feniletto Nature Oasis. Operating hours are Wednesday and Thursday evenings (7:30 PM to 9:30 PM), Friday and Saturday lunch (12:30 PM to 2:30 PM) and dinner (7:30 PM to 9:30 PM), and Sunday lunch (12:30 PM to 2:30 PM). The restaurant is closed Monday and Tuesday. Price range is €€€€. Booking is hard , contact the restaurant directly to reserve. For further planning, see our Oppeano bars guide, our Oppeano wineries guide, and our Oppeano experiences guide.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Famiglia Rana | Within the Feniletto Nature Oasis, the facility unfolds among a wooded garden, a farmyard dedicated to farm animals, stables with horses, an organic vegetable garden and an orchard. The restaurant enjoys a cosy and warm atmosphere, almost as if it were the living room at home, amid wooden furnishings and soft lighting. Look for a very rare object with your eyes that you can hardly admire elsewhere: the tooth of a Tyrannosaurus rex, a true work of art handed down to us by time! Protagonist of the new course is, as of early 2024, the talented chef Francesco Sodano, who offers three tasting courses: "Ricomincio da tre", inspired by Campania (his region of origin, as well as that of Massimo Troisi from whom he borrowed the name) and the most successful dishes of his personal journey; "The Doors", where creativity and research find satisfaction (the paccheri in chicory extraction sauce and seasoned with – in addition to a raw oyster – a grated roe of a kind of botargo created from seafood are excellent); finally, "Vegetable", hinged around the vegetable garden, where the fragrance and flavour of vegetables and greens are placed at the centre of each dish, made even more unique thanks to bold combinations and innovative cooking. In any case, the service – young yet experienced – will bend over backwards to make your meal as comfortable as possible.; Chef: Francesco Sodano document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function() { var el = document.getElementById("Achievements_chefs"); if (el && el.parentNode) { el.parentNode.removeChild(el); } });; Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in Europe Ranked #558 (2025); Within the Feniletto Nature Oasis, the facility unfolds among a wooded garden, a farmyard dedicated to farm animals, stables with horses, an organic vegetable garden and an orchard. The restaurant enjoys a cosy and warm atmosphere, almost as if it were the living room at home, amid wooden furnishings and soft lighting. Look for a very rare object with your eyes that you can hardly admire elsewhere: the tooth of a Tyrannosaurus rex, a true work of art handed down to us by time! Protagonist of the new course is, as of early 2024, the talented chef Francesco Sodano, who offers three tasting courses: "Ricomincio da tre", inspired by Campania (his region of origin, as well as that of Massimo Troisi from whom he borrowed the name) and the most successful dishes of his personal journey; "The Doors", where creativity and research find satisfaction (the paccheri in chicory extraction sauce and seasoned with – in addition to a raw oyster – a grated roe of a kind of botargo created from seafood are excellent); finally, "Vegetable", hinged around the vegetable garden, where the fragrance and flavour of vegetables and greens are placed at the centre of each dish, made even more unique thanks to bold combinations and innovative cooking. In any case, the service – young yet experienced – will bend over backwards to make your meal as comfortable as possible.; Michelin 1 Star (2024) | €€€€ | — |
| Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Dal Pescatore | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Osteria Francescana | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Quattro Passi | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Reale | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
A quick look at how Famiglia Rana measures up.
All three tasting menus are the format here — there is no à la carte. The Doors menu is the one to pick if you want to see what chef Francesco Sodano is doing at full stretch: the paccheri in chicory extraction sauce with raw oyster and seafood-derived botargo is the dish most cited in coverage of his tenure. Ricomincio da tre draws on his Campanian roots, while Vegetable centres entirely on the on-site organic garden. Choose based on how adventurous you want to eat, not personal dietary preference alone.
There are no comparable fine-dining options within Oppeano itself. The nearest points of comparison are in the broader Veneto region or further afield in northern Italy. Dal Pescatore in Canneto sull'Oglio offers a more classical Italian fine-dining experience with a longer track record, while Osteria Francescana in Modena operates at a higher price point and booking difficulty. For a nature-setting tasting menu experience in northern Italy, Famiglia Rana at €€€€ sits in a reasonable middle ground.
The dedicated Vegetable tasting menu makes this a stronger option for vegetarians than most Michelin-starred restaurants. For other restrictions, the format is tasting menus only, so flagging requirements at the time of booking is advisable. There is no publicly available information on allergen policies, so check the venue's official channels before your visit.
Book at least three to four weeks out. The restaurant operates only on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, Friday and Saturday lunch and dinner, and Sunday lunch — a tight weekly window that limits availability more than seat count alone. Since Francesco Sodano joined in early 2024 and the restaurant holds a Michelin star, weekend slots fill quickly. Midweek evenings are your best chance at shorter notice.
Yes, and the setting actively supports it. The restaurant sits within the Feniletto Nature Oasis among gardens, stables, and orchards, with wooden furnishings and soft lighting described as similar to a living room. A Michelin star (2024), three distinct tasting menus, and a young but attentive service team make this a considered choice for a milestone dinner rather than just a reliable restaurant visit.
Friday and Saturday lunch give you the full tasting menu experience with the natural light of the oasis setting, which is a different atmosphere to the evening. Dinner on Wednesday or Thursday is the quieter midweek option. If you are travelling specifically for the meal, a Friday or Saturday lunch slot lets you make a day of the Feniletto grounds. Sunday lunch is the only Sunday option and may suit those with travel constraints.
At €€€€ with a 2024 Michelin star and a chef who only joined in early 2024, the value case is real but conditional. If tasting menus are your format and you want a destination meal outside the obvious northern Italian cities, Famiglia Rana earns its price. If you want à la carte flexibility or are not committed to a multi-course format, look elsewhere. Ranked #558 in Opinionated About Dining's Top Restaurants in Europe (2025), it is being tracked by serious diners.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
