This is an exploration of the best places to visit in the area known as the Marche. This is usually translated ‘marches’ – a borderland – but historically they were a group of German counties or marken), each ruled by its margrave, in the time of the Hohenstaufen (Swabian) emperors. In a sense it was border country, an outlying, ultramontane region of the Papal States, constantly in conflict with the Holy Roman Empire, constantly juggling with the balance of power. That made for confusion of cultures, a defensive style of architecture and an independence of local character, features that still give the Marche a colour and life all their own.

The roads shown by the map are not easy to travel: some are reminiscent of the forest sections of an international automobile rally, and they go across the grain of the country, up hill and down dale. If marks were awarded for hairpin bends, the Marche provinces and not those of the Alps would earn the highest grades. To cover it all, allow about three days. You will not want to hurry from A to B. Though slow, your journey will be wonderfully quiet, for the Marche do not yet rank among the major tourist destinations. Almost uniquely in Italy, you can walk main roads without having continually to leap aside or flatten yourself against a wall. On secondary roads, on foot, you may be passed by about ten cars in an hour – and three will stop to offer you a lift, which is also uncharacteristic of modern Italy.

    If you follow the roads marked on the map you will be roughly parallel with the coast and 30-60 km from it, disovering towns, villages, lakes, gorges and mountain passes of particular interest. They are fairly typical, however, of the general scene. East-west roads, from the coast to the watershed and down into Tuscany and Umbria, cross the marked roads. New highways and improvements to the old ones have in recent years lessened the ordeal of those journeys. An off the cuff detour can still bring you to other places of memorable scenery, wrapped in solitude, undiscovered by travellers, bathed in age-old simplicity.

TRANSPORT

The regional airport is at Falconara, 10 km north-west of Ancona.

There are fascinating rail journeys on branch lines into the mountains from stations on the Adriatic coastal line (Milan Bologna-Ancona-Pescara-Bari).

A train from Falconara loops through awesome mountains and returns to the coast at Civitanova. Another climbs to Ascoli Piceno from the coast at Porto d’Ascoli.

From the coastal resorts and larger towns of the region – Ascoli Piceno, Macerata, Jesi and Urbino – there are scheduled bus services and summer excursions to all the places of interest on our tour. In the hills some villages see only one bus per day. The whole area away from the coast has light traffic.