Story
A fifty-year journey
A story that carries on
It all began in Termoli in 1976. Bruno Lanzone and his wife Pina Ceccarelli opened a restaurant by the sea and called it Cian — with the simplicity that belongs only to genuine things, the kind that need no explanation.
Those were years of hard, quiet, daily work.
Bruno selected each fish with his hands, his eyes and his nose. He spoke with the fishermen to understand what the sea would bring the following day. It was not a method: it was a way of being. It was the foundation of everything that would follow.
Since 1976, a constant.
Over the years, Cian became an institution on the Molise coast. Not simply one address among many, but a constant.
Pina's cooking — the flavours of the sea, homemade pasta and brodetto alla termolese prepared as it always had been — became the beating heart of a restaurant people visited not out of habit, but by choice. For that sense of belonging that only truly special places can inspire.
Then, in 2015, came the closure. Forced, painful and unexpected. The restaurant closed, and with it a piece of Termoli's culinary history seemed to close as well.
Continuity
But true stories do not end; they transform.
It was Miriana, the daughter of Bruno and Pina, who refused to surrender. Having grown up in that kitchen from childhood — deboning oily fish alongside her mother from the age of nine — she decided to pick up the thread. Not out of nostalgia, but out of conviction.
With her husband Mario by her side, she chose a quiet village a few kilometres from Termoli, the historic centre of San Giacomo degli Schiavoni, and reopened there.
The name remained the same, as did its soul. But for the first time, Cian was also theirs.
Two people who complete one another
Miriana and Mario
It is rare for the kitchen and dining room of a restaurant to speak the same language. At Cian, it happens naturally, without visible effort — because Miriana and Mario are not simply two people running a restaurant, but two halves of a single vision.
Together, Miriana and Mario embody something rare in the restaurant world: the harmony between the person who cooks and the person who welcomes, without hierarchy or fixed boundaries.
Cian is exceptional — in part — because the two of them work so well together.
‘We wanted to create a place that would feel like a second home to our guests.’
Chef
Miriana
Miriana is the kitchen. Above all, however, she is someone who made a choice: she left the law to return to the stove, not to fall back on something easier, but because she understood that this was her path — the one her mother had laid out and that she would follow in her own way.
She carries on the family recipes with absolute respect, while questioning them, exploring them and taking them where tradition had not yet dared to go. She does so quietly, with the natural ease of someone who is truly skilled: without announcing or explaining it. The dishes speak for themselves.
Maître and sommelier
Mario
Mario is the dining room. Yet even that description is too limiting. A professional maître and sommelier, he is the one who turns time at the table into something more than dinner. He guides, advises and tells stories — without the self-importance so often found in restaurants that take themselves too seriously.
He knows how to step back without disappearing and how to be present without imposing. His wine list is the result of years of genuine research; the guided whisky, rum and bourbon tastings he offers to more curious guests are another expression of the same rigour.
Awards
Recognition of a journey
In 2022, Miriana won Alessandro Borghese's 4 Ristoranti as the best restaurant on the Molise coast. In 2025 came the AMIRA Cravattino d'Oro, the first award of its kind in the entire region.
Cian is among the restaurants recognised by the Italian Academy of Cuisine and is consistently regarded as a point of reference by Italy's food and wine critics and press.
It is simply a reflection of what happens in that dining room every evening.
‘If only there were more like it.’ Knowing full well that if Cian has endured change and adversity since the 1970s… the reasons are no accident.
Borgo Cian
The luxury of slowness
Borgo Cian grew from an idea of Mario's and the belief that Cian's hospitality could extend beyond the table. Not simply accommodation, but a hotel spread throughout the historic village, created for those seeking the ‘luxury of slowness’, a peaceful, immersive way of travelling, far removed from the urgency of mass tourism.