Recanati: A charming town in the Marches

Recanati main square (photo: Elizabeth)

My mom said to me, “If you want to promote the Marches you need to write about the Marches.” So true! We have decided, therefore, to dedicate more posts this year to this wonderful and lesser known region of Italy. My post this week is about a small town in this region, Recanati.   

All Italians have heard about Recanati (population about 20,000), situated on a high ridge with views of the Adriatic sea on one side and views of the Appenine mountains on the other. Why? Giacomo Leopoldi! Well, you may ask as I sheepishly did, “Ok, just who was he, again?” My friends, Giacomo Leopardi, was an 19^th century intellectual and one of Italy’s most  beloved writers and poets. Remember I am an Art History buff and not a literary buff, although I was moved and inspired after learning more about this esteemed Poet.

In Leopardi’s family home, located in town, one can visit the family’s fabulous library containing more than 20,000 volumes and visit a recently redesigned museum which offers insight into the poet’s universe, his life, thoughts and vision. In the museum you will find Italians and school age kids (it is a must for highschool field trips), but not too many other visitors.

Picturesque square Recanati (photo: Elizabeth)

Leopardi's poetry (photo: Elizabeth)

The fabulous natural setting of Recanati is made even more evocative by the echoes of Leopardi’s poems. When one walks through the streets of town the atmosphere of his poetry is evoked, despite the markings here and there of modernity. The feeling happens when walking in the terraced park near his home, as far as the “solitary hill” to gaze at the moon:

“and you hung there suspended over that wood

as you do now, to illuminate it all”

or while observing the horizon from a house, hotel or restaurant window:

“What boundless thoughts

What fondling dreams were mine, as I could view,

So far away, the sea and those blue hills

I still can glimpse from here, and which I thought

I was one day to cross…”.*

The Appenine blue hills in the distance from a pizzeria in Recanati (photo: Elizabeth)

 One of the challenges of visiting these small towns are opening and closing hours of museums and churches,  but in Recanati I had good luck. Inside the Diocesan Museum next to the Cathedral of San Flaviano (located in the Bishop’s palace) I noticed an open door with a window grate. It was a private listening access space to the annexed Cathedral (which I had briefly seen for a few minutes, before I was shooed away because of daily mass). Infact the service was still taking place and I could listen in, from this secret access on a higher floor! With goose-bumps running up and down my arms I felt taken aback in time. I was someone in the Bishop’s Palace in the 17^th century, who not wanting to attend mass publicly, was attending from my own private quarters!

Secret observation access

 (photo: Elizabeth )

  

Mass through the private access grate (photo: Elizabeth)

After this stop, I was the only person in the Civic Museum, which proudly displays a recently restored Lorenzo Lotto (another goose-bump experience), but that will be subject of a future post. The region is promoting a whole itinerary on this 16^th century master of the Venetian Renaissance.  

Recanati Tower (photo: Elizabeth)

I found Recanati to be charming, friendly, and a great place to make a base for local explorations. The town is located about a 15 minute drive inland from the Adriatic coast, so one can go to the beach or explore neighboring towns and sites during the day and return to a quiet hill top town in the evenings. Recanati is another one of the many places to savour Italy’s la dolce vita away from busy crowds.   

Nearby Adriatic seaside at dusk (photo: Elizabeth)

- Posted by Elizabeth

*translations taken from Touring Club Italiano, Guide to Macerata and its province, ed 2003, pg. 71.