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The Marche (at one time "The Marches of
Ancona") sit on the east coast of Italy
fronting the
Adriatic Sea, with
Umbria to the
west, Emilia
Romagna and the independent
Republic of San Marino to the north,
Abruzzo to
the south, and a small corner of
Lazio Roma to
the south west.
At
one time settled by the early italic tribe, the
Umbrians, and considered part of Umbria by the
neighboring
Etruscans, and later the
Romans, the Marche were absorbed into the
Papal States and more or less remained
there, an undesignated area, until the area was
incorporated into the modern country of Italy in
1861 and the modern Region and its provinces
created.
The coastal areas of The Marche are flat and
relatively fertile, but the western reaches of
The Marches, are ribbed with the
Appenines. So, except along the
coastal highway (A14) from
Brindisi to
Bologna,
north-south travel is restricted to a myriad of
secondary and tertiary highways and local roads,
on which you will encounter - pleasantly - a
countless number of small villages and towns,
sitting at the edges of rivers, nestled in
valleys or perched
improbably on the sides, and sometimes the top
of mountains.
The coast drive, coming either from the north or
south is one of Italy's most picturesque,
and chances are you will look for lay-bys where
you can pull over and take a few snaps as you
gather in the gorgeous sea views across the Adriatic
and up and down the littoral.
Ancona is the only really sizeable
commercial harbor along the Adriatic coast,
although there are other smaller ports,
especially Fano, that are the homes to
small fishing fleets. Ancona is also an
important Italian naval station, and The Marche
have long been supplying sailors to the Italian
navy.
Because Ancona is so busy, and because it is
heavily industrialized and because a chaotic
modern dreariness has risen out of the
destruction wreaked on the place during World
War II (the
well dug-in Nazis and
Canadian
liberators fought a
ferocious house-to-house action here)
travelers and tourists tend to avoid the City.
But, those who do will miss some of the
architectural and artistic treasures that are
found throughout the city, particularly in the
old medieval core from which the modern city
emanates.
In
Ancona, Ascoli, Fano,
Fermo, Urbisaglia and Macerata,
there are numerous ruins from the era of the
Roman empire.
Architectural styles for
churches, public buildings and the palaces of
the wealthy range from Romanesque to Byzantine
and Gothic. The Renaissance style also
reached The Marche, and one will encounter
both Renaissance buildings, and art works by
Raphael
(born at Urbino) and
Bramante
(born near Urbino).
Camerino,
a hill-side city now home to a small university, and
Matelica, a walled valley-town, in
the central southern part of the Region also
have a few architectural gems worth going out of
the way to see. Fabriano, on the
SS76 from Rome, is also a sizeable medieval
city, surrounded by industrial plants, but
strangely devoid of architectural and artistic
merit. However, just to the east and north of
the city is the Grotto di Frasassi, an
extraordinary cave system high in the mountains.
Access is somewhat pricey, but wow!
The agricultural lands in The Marche, like
those in Umbria are, to the modern traveler, a
delightful checkerboard of small vineyards,
olive groves and fields ranging across the
valley floors, up the gentler slopes of the
mountains, and even on small plateaus and other
level (and not so level) areas higher up.
The checkerboard effect, however, was the result
of an oppressive near-feudal land use system -
mezzadria - that broke the land up into
small holdings and tied peasant farmers to
lands owned in large part by the aristocracy,
the church and city dwellers.
The Marche, like other out of the way places in
Italy, have a long, interesting and complicated
history, and holds its own pleasures and
treasures. Getting to know them takes more
time than a passing glance. Now is a good
time to make a plan to visit The Marches,
another area of Italy that English-speaking travelers have
yet to "discover", and so it has the feel, for us,
of a new and different Italian experience. |
Coat of Arms,
The Marches |
