★ History and art · Urbino and MontefeltroSassocorvaro AuditoreA turtle-shaped Renaissance fortress designed by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, above a lake in the Montefeltro.
The storyDuring the Second World War the superintendent Pasquale Rotondi hid thousands of works of art here, and later in other hiding places in the area, brought from Venice, Milan, Rome and the Marche, including Giorgione's Tempest and masterpieces by Piero della Francesca and Raphael. Moving them by night and risking his life, he saved them from bombing and looting. That is why the fortress is called «the Ark of Art», and it hosts an exhibition on the story.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Urbino and MontefeltroUrbaniaA town on the Metauro, once the summer residence of the dukes of Urbino, with a small church that holds eighteen mummies.
The storyUntil 1636 the town was called Casteldurante; it took its present name in honour of Pope Urban VIII. In the Chiesa dei Morti (Church of the Dead), the Confraternity of the Good Death, which buried the poor, placed behind the altar the bodies mummified naturally by a mould in the soil of the old cemetery. Each has its own story, told by the custodian. Urbania is also known for its ceramics and for the national Befana festival.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Nature · Urbino and MontefeltroAcqualagnaA narrow gorge between rock walls, crossed by the Candigliano river and the ancient Via Flaminia, in a nature reserve with golden eagles.
The storyIn AD 76 Emperor Vespasian had a tunnel cut through the rock for the Flaminia, still walkable almost two thousand years later. In 1936, on the side of Monte Pietralata, the forestry militia created a giant profile of Mussolini out of trees and stones; partisans damaged it in 1944, but the outline can still be made out. In Acqualagna, a few kilometres away, truffles are harvested.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Urbino and MontefeltroPergolaA museum in an inland town that holds the only gilded bronze equestrian group from Roman antiquity to have survived.
The storyIn 1946 two farmers digging a ditch at Cartoceto di Pergola found hundreds of bronze fragments: reassembled, they formed two horsemen, two horses and two women, probably members of an important family of ancient Rome. No one knows for sure who they are, or why the statues were broken up and buried. For decades Ancona and Pergola fought over the bronzes, which are now in the Pergola museum.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Town · Jesi, Fabriano and FrasassiFabrianoThe city of paper, with a museum where you can watch sheets being made by hand, as in the Middle Ages.
The storyFrom the 13th century the paper mills of Fabriano introduced innovations that changed the history of paper in Europe: water-powered hammer mills to pulp the rags, animal-based sizing to make the sheets resist ink, and the watermark, the design visible against the light that served as a trademark. Speciality papers are still made here today, and Fabriano is a UNESCO Creative City.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Town · Jesi, Fabriano and FrasassiJesiA town enclosed by medieval walls above the Esino valley, surrounded by Verdicchio vineyards.
The storyOn 26 December 1194 Empress Constance of Hauteville, travelling to Sicily, gave birth here to the future Emperor Frederick II. Tradition says that, being already forty and fearing the birth might be questioned, she gave birth in a tent in the main square, in front of the women of the town. The square now bears his name, and a museum tells the emperor's life story. The composer Pergolesi was also born in Jesi.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Nature · Sibillini MountainsMontemonacoA small glacial lake at almost two thousand metres, in a hollow below the summit of the Vettore, which in summer splits into two pools shaped like a pair of spectacles.
The storyLegend says that the body of Pontius Pilate, shut in a cart drawn by oxen, was sent off without a driver and ended up here, in the lake. In the Middle Ages magicians and necromancers climbed up to consecrate their books, so much so that the authorities of Norcia banned access under severe penalties. The lake is home to a tiny red crustacean found nowhere else in the world, Chirocephalus marchesonii.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ Town · Sibillini MountainsMontemonacoA mountain village at the foot of Monte Sibilla, named after the cave of the legendary prophetess who, tradition says, lived inside the mountain.
The storyIn the Middle Ages people believed that a Sibyl lived in the cave, with an underground kingdom of pleasures from which those who entered never returned. In 1420 the French writer Antoine de La Sale climbed to the entrance and described the journey in «The Paradise of Queen Sibyl», and the legend spread all over Europe, eventually inspiring the story of the knight Tannhäuser. The cave entrance has since collapsed, but the climb to the summit is still spectacular.
Full page, why go and what's nearby →★ History and art · Ascoli, Fermo and the PicenoFermoA hilltop town overlooking the sea, with a large arcaded square and, beneath the houses, a huge Roman reservoir.
The storyIn the 1st century AD the Romans built the so-called purification pools beneath the town: thirty interconnected rooms in three rows, where water was collected and left to settle to supply the town and its port. They are among the best-preserved Roman cisterns in Italy, and walking through them gives a sense of ancient engineering. The art gallery has an Adoration of the Shepherds by Rubens.
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