Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
LE MARCHE
From the white-pebble, cliff-backed bays along the Adriatic to sloped hill towns and the
high-rise mountain ranges of Monti Sibillini, Le Marche is one of Italy's little-known treas-
ures.
It's inland where Le Marche really shines. Urbino, Raphael's hometown, presents a
smorgasboard of Renaissance art and history up and down its vertical streets. Pale but
lovely Ascoli Piceno has beauty and history in bounds. Equally walkable is Macerata, with
a famous open-air opera theatre and festival. Covering its western reaches, and bleeding
over into neighbouring Umbria, is the wild and wonderful Parco Nazionale dei Monti Si-
billini.
History
The first well-known settlers of Le Marche were the Piceni tribe, whose 3000-year-old
artefacts can be seen in the Museo Archeologico in Ascoli Piceno. The Romans invaded
the region early in the 3rd century BC, and dominated it for almost 700 years. After they
fell, Le Marche was sacked by the Goths, Vandals, Ostrogoths and, finally, the Lombards.
In the 8th century AD, Pope Stephen II decided to call upon foreigners to oust the un-
godly Lombards. The first to lead the charge of the Frankish army was Pepin the Short, but
it was his rather tall son Charlemagne who finally took back control from the Lombards for
good. On Christmas Day in 800, Pope Leo III crowned him Emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire.
After Charlemagne's death, Le Marche entered into centuries of war, anarchy and gener-
al Dark Ages mayhem. In central Italy, two factions developed: the Guelphs (who backed
papal rule) and the Ghibellines (who supported the emperor). The Guelph faction eventu-
ally won out and Le Marche became part of the Papal States. It stayed that way until Italian
unification in 1861.
Getting There & Around
Drivers have two options on the coastline: the A14 autostrada (main highway) or the SS16
strada statale
(state highway). Inland roads are either secondary or tertiary and much
slower. Regular trains ply the coast on the Bologna-Lecce line and spurs head to Macerata
and Ascoli Piceno.
