A little bit of Milan in the heart of Portland

Husband and wife team Fabiana De Savino and Enrico Barbiero are from Milan. They moved to Maine last spring and opened Paciarino (pronounced poch-ah-ree-no) in early January. Weekdays and Saturday, the lunch crowd (the spot isn't open for dinner) lines up all over the big, airy space - a former hair salon a few blocks from the bay, in the brick and cobblestone Old Port. Chunks of bread in one hand and forks in the other, diners dig into plate after plate of the couple's pasta - eggplant ravioli, lasagna alla Bolognese, pumpkin ravioli with butter and sage, tagliatelle with meatballs, ravioli with walnut sauce, maccheroni alla arrabiata. Customers are leaning against the bar and sitting at wooden tables set with slate placemats. You can hear a surprising amount of Italian language among the diners and everyone seems a little more cheerful than they did when they walked in. Paciarino is Italian slang for the special food that mothers and grandmothers prepare on Sundays. The name suits the place.

Barbiero and De Savino had owned restaurants in Milan. "It was tough there," says De Savino. "Enrico worked until 3 a.m. most days." The couple moved to Maine for a quieter life. "Our little daughter Berenice is just 6 years old," she says. "To grow up in Milan the way it is now would be so hard. The city is polluted - it smells like car exhaust - and it's not safe. When I walk, I look over my shoulder. There is no place outside for a child to play."

The couple settled here after a monthlong trip one fall, when they rented a place on Portland's Eastern Promenade overlooking the bay and islands. Everyday they watched the sun rise and set. De Savino says, "We love the colors here and we love the sea."

Now she's making pasta the way that she always has. She learned to cook from her grandmother - Nonna Aurelia. "My grandmother, she was from a small town in Bologna, and she lived with us, and every day she made pasta," she says. "She woke up very early in the morning and made her Bolognese sauce. It filled the house with a smell of garlic, rosemary, sage, and cloves. Oh, my grandmother! I loved this smell so much at lunch and dinner - but not so much before I had my coffee."