Cities

Recanati
the birthplace of Giacomo Leopardi, for a route through the places dear to this poet's heart: the piazza and the monument dedicated to him, the memorabilia kept in the Town Hall, the small piazza of Sabato del Villaggio and the tower of the Passero Solitario.
Leopardi Palace, the birth-house of the poet and the adjoining National Centre for the Leopardian study bring you to the Colle dell'Infinito where the first verse of the famous idyll "always dear to me was this lonely hill" is worth visiting, as it boasts considerable works including four important paintings by Lorenzo Lotto.
There are a further two museums which stand out: the Beniamino Gigli Town Hall and houses photographs, personal items, testimonials and scene costumes belonging to the famous singer, and the Diocesan Museum within the Bishop's Residence.

Jesi
The city centre, that lays on the upper town, is still protected by the city walls. It presents some elegant buildings such as the Palazzo della Signoria by Francesco di Giorgio Martini and Palazzo Pianetti, hosting a wonderful paintings collection with some pieces of the famous Lorenzo Lotto.
Today the main square is the one of the theatre, from here you can take the walking street up to the Belvedere gardens, or you can choose to walk through the net of suggestive narrow streets scattered around the centre up to the former main square dedicated to Fredric II.
You can also visit the SAS, Art and Print Laboratory: Manuzzi changed the printing font from wood to lead and the SAS proposes some guided visits and workshop to deepen the knowledge of the art that changed history. On the contrary you will find some other hidden treasures just walking along the streets and walls of the town that every year in summer hosts the Palio di San Floriano.

Urbino
Urbino, the city of the Renaissance, which, with its ancient walls, is an inestimable treasure trove of art, culture and history, an absolute must is a visit to the Ducal Palace which holds the Marche National Gallery where masterpieces from various historical periods are preserved, with works by Raffaello, Piero della Francesca, Tiziano, Paolo Uccello, Luca Signorelli, etc..
The Palace perfectly connects with the other buildings planned by Francesco di Giorgio Martini on the initiative of Federico da Montefeltro: the Church of S. Bernardino degli Zoccolanti (Mausoleum of the Dukes of Montefeltro) and the ConventofS. Chiara. Other important sights to see are: the imposing Cathedral, the Oratory of San Giovanni and Raphael's Birth-House. In the town, on the 3rd Sunday of August, there is an interesting historic commemoration of The Duke's Festival.

Macerata
A pleasant and elegant town, Macerata has a unique monument: the Sferisterio, a neoclassical amphitheatre that can host 7000 people. Visiting the historical town centre we discover other architectural treasures, facing onto the central Piazza della Liberta or along the narrow roads, characterised by the use of brick.

Osimo full of ancient remains, amongst which we could mention the thirteen Roman statues from the Imperial age, kept in the Town Hall, the Romanesque Cathedral, with the small piazza and the Battistero, the Sanctuary of S. Giuseppe da Copertino and the prestigious Campana Palace which houses the Town Museum.
In the surrounding area, you can find Aspio Terme, a hydrotherapy centre, immersed in green land. Offagna, the production area for the red wine Rosso Conero, is dominated by the Fortress which is home to the Museum of Ancient Weapons and, during the last week of July, has evocative Mediaeval Festivals in which the ancient tradition of the Contesa della Crescia is relived.

In Ancona, we can certainly recommend a scenic walk to Passetto, one of the most suggestive areas of the city offering a fully equipped park and a double stairway from which it is possible to reach the sea below. The flat and levelled seashore is abruptly interrupted to the south of Ancona by the green vegetation of Mount Conero (the first regional Park founded in the Marche in 1987) peremptorily merging within the deep blue of the Adriatic sea offering a view of rare and suggestive impact. It is a natural environment which extends for approximately 6,000 ha and includes art, culture, history and excursion routes entwined within the magic of the Mediterranean mark. This is the starting point of one of the most beautiful seashore area of the entire Adriatic coast: the Conero Riviera.

Ascoli Piceno is situated at the foot of the Appenines of Marches, where the river Castellano flows into the river Tronto, the boundary line with the Abruzzo region. It looks like a natural amphitheatre with on the west the mountains of the Apennines and its two national parks (Mountains della Laga and the Sibillini Mountains) to the south Colle San Marco and Montagna dei Fiori; to the north the Ascensione Mountains; and to the east the whole Tronto valley that leads to the Adriatic Sea, on the beautiful coast of San Benedetto del Tronto.

  The Legend tell that a group of young Sabines, driven by a woodpecker (the bird sacred to Mars), would have reached a strip of land between two rivers where they founded the city of Ascoli and joining with the local populations have given rise to the Piceni. Ascoli Piceno is a real "box of sweets" rich of history and monuments, where the use of travertine dominates the scene. In this way Ascoli appears to visitors who wander among the narrow streets of its historic centre. Medieval, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, a city of thousand faces, full of history, easy to read because its inhabitants have adapted themselves to her, respecting it and preserving it over time. The narrow streets (called Rue), that are still paved with river pebbles, come suddenly out on its squares, real salons of art, or they overlook on the rivers and on the valleys opening their look on green horizons. The walk "rret to them mierghie" (literally "behind the blackbirds") is particularly suggestive.