Marche

The Picenes, an Iron Age people known for their warrior tombs, held the south and centre, and the Gallic Senones settled in the north around Sena Gallica, today's Senigallia. Greeks from Syracuse founded Ancona in the 4th century BC, naming it after the "elbow" of land around its harbour. Rome absorbed the area in the 3rd century BC and pushed the Via Flaminia through the Furlo gorge to Fano; Trajan rebuilt Ancona's harbour and left the arch that still stands there.

After the empire, the coastal cities of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Senigallia and Ancona formed the Byzantine Pentapolis, and under the Franks and the Holy Roman Empire the area was organised into frontier marks, the "marches" that gave the region its name. Emperor Frederick II was born in Jesi in 1194. Ancona was a maritime republic trading with the East, while the popes claimed the whole territory and fought local lords such as the Malatesta, the Varano of Camerino and the Montefeltro of Urbino.

Under Federico da Montefeltro, a condottiero turned patron, Urbino became one of the Renaissance's most refined courts; Raphael was born there in 1483, and Bramante nearby. The duchy passed to the Della Rovere and in 1631 to the Papal States, which held the Marche until 1860, when the Piedmontese army won the battle of Castelfidardo and the region joined Italy. In the 20th century it grew from a region of sharecroppers into one of small factories, and the earthquakes of 1997 and 2016 hit the Apennine towns hard.

The Marche is sometimes described as Italy in one region: mountains, hills and sea, and a population divided among many towns of similar size with no dominant city. Its identity is quiet and hard-working, shaped by the old sharecropping families and a strong craft tradition. Dialects change from north to south, the Pesaro area sounding close to Romagna and Ascoli closer to Abruzzo.

The region has produced a remarkable roll of figures: Raphael, Bramante, the composers Rossini from Pesaro, Pergolesi from Jesi and the tenor Beniamino Gigli, the poet Giacomo Leopardi from Recanati, the educator Maria Montessori from Chiaravalle, and the motorcycle champion Valentino Rossi, raised in Tavullia. Music festivals honour them: the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro and the summer opera season in Macerata's open-air Sferisterio.

Religious life centres on the shrine at Loreto, where tradition holds that angels carried the Virgin Mary's house from Nazareth; it draws pilgrims from across Italy. The historical pageants are lively: Ascoli's Quintana, a joust between town quarters, and many medieval festivals in the hill towns. Castelfidardo builds accordions, Fabriano has made paper since the Middle Ages, and the Fermo and Macerata area is a centre of Italian shoemaking.

About 1.5 million people live in the Marche, spread through a network of mid-sized towns. Ancona has about 100,000 residents; Pesaro is similar in size, and Fano, San Benedetto del Tronto, Ascoli Piceno, Senigallia, Macerata and Jesi follow. Urbino, with about 14,000 people, fills with students in term time thanks to its university, and there are universities too in Ancona, Macerata and Camerino.

The economy is built on industrial districts of small family firms: shoes and leather around Fermo, kitchens and furniture around Pesaro, household appliances and paper around Fabriano, musical instruments at Castelfidardo, and shipbuilding in Ancona. Fishing fleets work out of Ancona and San Benedetto, and farms grow vines, olives, wheat and sunflowers.

Daily life is suburban and orderly, with family lunches, Sunday drives to the coast and a long summer beach season. Current concerns include the slow reconstruction of mountain villages after 2016, depopulation of the interior, competition for the traditional manufacturing districts and flood defence along short, fast rivers.

The Marche's signature snack is olive all'ascolana, large green olives from the Ascoli area stuffed with seasoned meat, breaded and fried. Vincisgrassi is a rich baked pasta, a relative of lasagne layered with meat ragù and béchamel, and the maccheroncini of Campofilone are very fine egg noodles. Inland, ciauscolo is a soft spreadable pork salami, and porchetta and roast rabbit are common; in the hills around Urbino crescia, a flaky flat bread, is eaten with cured meats, and casciotta d'Urbino is a mild protected cheese.

The coast has its own cooking. Brodetto is a fish stew made in different styles in Ancona, Porto Recanati, Fano and San Benedetto; moscioli are the wild mussels of the Conero rocks; and stoccafisso all'anconetana is stockfish slowly braised with potatoes and tomatoes. Truffles come from the hills around Acqualagna.

The best-known wine is Verdicchio, a white from the Castelli di Jesi and Matelica. Rosso Conero and Rosso Piceno are the main reds, Lacrima di Morro d'Alba a fragrant red, and Vernaccia di Serrapetrona a rare sparkling red. Anisetta, an aniseed liqueur, is made in Ascoli, and mistrà is the local anise spirit.

In the north, Urbino's Palazzo Ducale houses the National Gallery of the Marche, with Piero della Francesca's Flagellation, and Raphael's birthplace is a short walk away. Pesaro has Rossini's house and a long beach, Fano its Roman Arch of Augustus, and the castle of Gradara is linked to the story of Paolo and Francesca in Dante. The Furlo gorge cuts through the mountains on the old Via Flaminia.

Ancona, in the centre, has the cathedral of San Ciriaco above the port, Trajan's Arch and the Mole Vanvitelliana. South of the city the Conero promontory rises from the sea, with the bay of Portonovo, the resorts of Sirolo and Numana and the Due Sorelle rocks, reached by boat. Inland are Loreto's basilica of the Holy House, Recanati with Leopardi's home, Jesi's walls and the hill towns of the Verdicchio country. Near Genga, the Frasassi caves open into huge chambers of stalagmites, and the Romanesque abbey of San Vittore alle Chiuse stands at the mouth of the gorge.

In the south, Ascoli Piceno's travertine Piazza del Popolo and Piazza Arringo anchor a town of medieval towers and churches, while Fermo and Macerata, with its Sferisterio, are hill towns worth a stop. The Monti Sibillini National Park, with Monte Vettore and the glacial Lake Pilato, rises along the border with Umbria.