Smart Guide Italy: Le Marche: Smart Guide Italy, #13

Smart Guide Italy: Le Marche

Published by Smart Guides

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Alexei Cohen

Discover other titles in the Smart Guide series:

Rome & Lazio

Florence & Tuscany

Venice & Veneto

Milan & Lombardy

Naples & Campania

Turin, Piedmont & Aosta Valley

Genova & Liguria

Trentino-Alto Adige

Umbria

Northern Italy

Northern Italian Cities

Grand Tour: Rome, Florence, Venice & Naples

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD

INTRODUCING LE MARCHE

History

TOP STOPS

PLANNING

NORTHERN LE MARCHE

Urbino

Fossimbrone

Urbania

San Leo

Fano

Pesaro

San Marino

ANCONA PROVINCE

Senigallia

Ancona

Conero Peninsula

Loreto

Jesi

Frasassi

MACERATI PROVINCE

Recanati

Macerati

Urbisaglia

Tolentino

Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini

ASCOLI PICENO PROVINCE

Ascoli Piceno

Grottammare

FOREWORD

Le Marche isn’t Tuscany or Veneto. It doesn’t have big name attractions famous all over the world and that’s a good thing. What the region does have is plenty of beautiful small towns packed with history, art and culinary delights that are relatively unknown by Italian standards. There aren’t many lines to get into museums and roads through the scenic countryside and along the seaside rarely get as jammed as they do in neighboring regions. Le Marche is a great destination for travelers who want to experience Italy at their own pace without being overwhelmed by tourists or locals.

After hundreds of kilometers clocked, dozens of towns explored and a respectable number of bottles downed Le Marche became one of our favorite regions. It’s a land that left us wanting more and got us planning a return journey almost as soon as we had left. We hope you’ll feel the same and will benefit from this guide whether you’re discovering Le Marche for the first time or coming back for seconds.

If you haven’t already reserved a place to stay you may want to browse our accommodation options.

Smart Guide provides dozens of convenient bed & breakfast, farmhouse and small hotel offers

throughout the region. It’s a cozy and convenient way to meet friendly people, keep your carbon footprint

low and save.

Enjoy the journey!

Alexei Cohen

Series Editor

INTRODUCING LE MARCHE

Dolce, the Italian word for both gentle and sweet, best describes the landscape and people of one of Italy’s least-visited regions. The soft rolling hills and the often-reserved nature of the inhabitants invites comparison with the Iowa landscapes that Grant Wood painted. Green takes on another hue in Le Marche, where its color is more emerald than Tuscany’s and brighter than the deep greens of neighboring Umbria. Le Marche firmly remains the land of small family industry and farms. Shoemakers still cut leather and hammer shoes in their homes or in small workshops. Here even someone from the next town is a stranger.

Marchigiani, as the region’s inhabitants are called, neither exude the spirited, dark wit of Neapolitans nor the bravado of Romans. Better a dead person in the house than a Marchigiano at the door, is the old Italian saying that refers to their role as tax collectors for the Pope. No wonder few Italians visit the region. That specter has been replaced by a region that has now set out the welcome mat. Residents are eager to assist visitors and make time for conversation. They like to share the beauty of their territory and their fine crafts. They will pause to give you exacting directions or even walk or drive you to the sight you seek. That’s just part of Le Marche.

Castles, fortresses, lovely hilltop towns, wineries, the sea, fine paintings, architecture that reflects the measure of the land, medieval monasteries, and the Sibylline Mountains round out the picture. Le Marche’s hills are dotted with silvery olive trees, lined with vineyards, and covered with amber grain that in early spring shows off wild orchids and in early summer is drenched bright red with wild poppies and fragrant with acacia and yellow broom.

Small theaters enliven even the tiniest towns with performances. Le Marche’s palaces and castles were the backdrop for Renaissance courts in Urbino and beyond. Second to none, they attracted not only artistic genius but the foremost mathematicians, philosophers, writers, and poets of their day.

Le Marche has relatively unknown medieval Ascoli Piceno: its towers are as fascinating as those of San Gimignano, but Ascoli has a warmer luster, is only minutes away from the sea, and has fewer tourists and more reasonable prices. Fano is a yacht-making town with a guardian angel that inspired Robert Browning. Ancona has one of Italy’s great jazz festivals. The Conero Promontory and its national park form one of Italy’s loveliest stretches of coast, with pristine water, a Napoleonic fort and noteworthy red wine. Le Marche even borders a tiny country within Italy, San Marino, the gregarious twin to San Leo.

This former Papal state commissioned artists to adorn churches and private palaces. Native genius Raphael was born in Urbino and later lured to Florence and then Rome. Others like Venice-born Lorenzo Lotto vied for commissions in Le Marche. Religious subjects in the hands of Lotto are surprisingly bold in color and daring in their imagery: See his astonishing Annunciation in Recanati or his defiant St. Lucy in Jesi. Not all subjects were religious, though. Even the frescoes painted in a bishop’s palace or its sculptures often had decidedly light-hearted or mythological themes.

Le Marche’s museums are on a smaller scale than those in better-known regions. Here you have time to savor paintings. Or see them in situ, like in Fano, where paintings by Raphael’s father, his master Perugino, and even the young apprentice himself hang in the same church. Or visit Urbino and other noble courts that were Renaissance think tanks as well as residences for the top artists of the day. Small towns like Fossombrone were the birthplace of noteworthy Baroque artists: names like Guerrieri may be less familiar than celebrities like Bernini, but they deserve attention, too. Some churches have beautifully carved wood choirs by master craftsmen that portray Renaissance street scenes and cityscapes with remarkable precision, use of perspective and whimsy.

You can also travel back in time. City and archaeological museums have intriguing bronzes and ceramics from the ancient Picenes people, their Greek trading partners and Romans who left their engineering mark in the region. Roman frescoes or miniature sculptures of the war god Mars in his Napoleonic hat are sure to intrigue.

The Roman heritage of Le Marche comes through in splendid archaeological sites like Urbisaglia. Here you can wander the ruins of an ancient Roman town that was Pompeii’s contemporary without 21st-century tour groups shuffling past. Its two ancient theaters are used for prestigious performances and an ancient Roman dinner is the town’s big annual event. Nearby accommodations in historic sites at reasonable prices make this an ideal base, too. Towns liked Fano have popular Roman re-enactments and even chariot races. Other ages get their due in Napoleonic battles or in processions, like Ascoli Piceno’s famous medieval parade and Urbino’s Renaissance parade and music festival.

The region is also full of mystery and surprises. Legends are everywhere: the Sybills and their prophecies in the mountains named after them; the devil that butted his horn to form holes in Tolentino’s bridge; the infant in Urbisaglia that preferred to be nursed by a she-wolf instead of a human; the alchemy of Cagliostro that landed him in San Leo’s prison; and the Holy Family’s house that became airborne and was transported by angels to Loreto.

Performing arts are alive and well here, even in the smallest town. Music in all forms is first-rate. Jazz swings in Ancona and in many small town venues. Don’t miss outdoor performances in Urbisaglia’s ancient Roman theater or opera in Macerata’s prestigious Sferisterio outdoor arena. World-class performers and directors work their magic in opera, jazz, classical music, and theater.

Demanding gourmets will be delighted in this land of star chefs. Italians from other regions admit that some of Italy’s best cooks hail from Le Marche. Much of the cuisine is grounded in tradition, but master chefs bring food to new heights like Senigallia’s two sublime fish restaurants that create the latest trends. On the coast, tradition reigns alongside innovation. The seafood stew, brodetto, varies from town to town but almost always calls for 13 types of fish, shellfish, and crustaceans. Simple cuisine like fried food requires a deft touch, at which towns like Ascoli excel.

Le Marche is the Italy everyone is nostalgic for: small trattorie, superb fresh ingredients, simple decor, and reasonable prices. A meal in