Le Marche

A view from Cingoli, known as "The balcony of Le Marches".
The dark blue in the distance is the Adriatic Sea.

Angelica and I recently returned from a whirlwind weekend in a fascinating area of the country, the Marche.  Indeed I enjoyed it so much I decided to make this small region of Italy my vacation destination this summer.

Angelica and I were there doing preliminary scouting for a new walking itinerary for Country Walkers, a company which we have been collaborating with for many years – www.countrywalkers.com. The next couple of posts will focus on this varying and interesting “undiscovered” region of Italy.

The region of the Marche is a rectangle in central Italy, located between the Emilia-Romagna region to the north, Tuscany and Umbria to the west, and Lazio and Abruzzo regions to the south and the Adriatic sea to the east. The region is made up of picturesque hills and mountains of the Apennine chain, which gently slope towards the sea along parallel valleys. Indeed at times it is exceptionally breathtaking. And with a series of hill-top towns like Tuscany - every little place has something special to offer. 

In ancient times Le Marche was known as the Picenum territory. The coastal area was occupied by the Senones, a tribe of Gauls. As with most places in Italy it was conquered by the Romans, in this case after the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BC. The Romans founded numerous colonies in the area, creating the Via Flaminia and the Via Salaria to connect these towns to Rome. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was invaded by the Goths. Later it became part of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna and then became briefly in the possession of the Lombards, but it was conquered by Charlemagne in the late eighth century. In the ninth to eleventh centuries the marches of Camerino, Fermo and Ancona were created, hence the modern name.

Le Marche was nominally part of the Papal States, but most of the territory was under local lords, while the major cities ruled themselves as free communes. During the Renaissance, the region was fought over by rival aristocratic families - names such as the Malatesta of Rimini and the house of Montefeltro of Urbino. The last independent entity, the Duchy of Urbino, was dissolved in 1631, and from then on, Le Marche was firmly part of the Papal States except during the Napoleonic period. After Napoleon's defeat, Le Marche returned to Papal rule until November 4, 1860, when it was annexed to the unified Kingdom.

Noteworthy figures such as Giacomo Leopardi, Raphael, Giovan Battista Pergolesi, Gioachino Rossini, Gaspare Spontini, Father Matteo Ricci and Frederick II,  all come from this area.

Discovering the Marche means taking things a little slow - a rewarding detour – down old streets and countryside lanes in the search of the beauty of the land and of its people.