Le Marche

As the name suggests le Marche are a border area, and for centuries their territories were fiercely contested. At the end of the Middle Ages this remote region of Italy was incorporated into the Papal States, though local lords and prelates were nominally left in charge. This manoeuvred Le Marche — especially their southern reaches — into an off-piste position in comparison with its more easily accessible neighbours of Tuscany and Umbria. Nonetheless, this land of ‘Sleeping Beauties’ is home to some great art and architecture, ranging from the extraordinarily elaborate pilgrimage site of Loreto, containing a Holy House miraculously transported to the town by angels, to the intensely mystical paintings of Lorenzo Lotto, who was invited to the Marche by the Dominicans. Lotto was in fact just one of a number of major painters from the Veneto who worked in the region at some point during their lives; these include such great names as Giovanni Bellini, Carlo Crivelli and Titian, who were often attracted by the opportunities offered by the region’s numerous small courts. Each hilltop town has its own distinctive atmosphere and beauty, ranging from the steep stony streets of Fermo to the grandeur of many-towered Ascoli Piceno, from the solid bastions of Jesi to the melancholy charm of Recanati, home to Italy’s greatest lyrical poet, Giacomo Leopardi. No-one gazing upon the delicate beauty of these hills crowned by their mediaeval towns and villages can be in any doubt as to the source of the poet’s inspiration.