Holidays in Marche

I was in Italy recently [...] This last time, I visited a city in Le Marche called Ascoli Piceno for the first time. It’s an off-the-tourist-track kind of a place by and large, but it has a lovely city center, all made of travertine, and some very lovely churches, and a history of pottery making. All good stuff. But perhaps best of all, it’s where the Meletti company is, a company known for making delicious imbibables. [...] What I didn’t know, though, until getting to Ascoli Piceno, was how amazing the Meletti Café is.
It sits right on the corner (in the below shot, back right) of the city center I mentioned, which is known as the Piazza del Popolo, and which is one of the prettiest piazza’s I’ve been in [...]
I ordered a Meletti Anisette, which is the most well-known of the Meletti offerings, and which is the finest anisette available anywhere. It has a layered anise flavor and an underlying sweetness that tastes pure and natural; it’s a liqueur that’s meant to be savored and not shot back, and one that mixes like a champion dancer into cocktails – but which has to be had solo (or with three very small additions) to be completely understood.[...]

Built around the second half of the ninth century on the hill Colcù in Caldarola and subsequently amended at the end of the sixteenth century with the intentions of the cardinal Evangelista Pallotta to use the fortification as his summer residence.
The improvements in the Renaissance style celebrate the prestige of Pallotta Family which also included four Cardinals.
The prestigious residence hosted, among others, Pope Clement VIII and Queen Christina of Sweden.
Today the Castello Pallotta is one of the most impressive monuments in Le Marche region you can visit with a simple reservation directly from the new website. http://www.castellopallotta.com/ ;

It is about 2.5 hours from Umbertide through the mountains and deep in Le Marche. The town has a history that is older than Rome's. It was originally on the salt road that took salt from the sea down to Rome. It's history is too long and complicated to recite here, but suffice it to say there were many battles, rulers, and fights with their neighbors. It is now a city that has some industry, Barilla, the pasta company, but still depends on farming and quarries. It is not easy to get to, which is probably why most Americans have not discovered it, but if you have a car, and the time, it is worth a detour on your schedule.

There is a bar that Hemingway frequented. It was recently restored and feels like a cafe in Paris.
This is the inside of the cafe. If you order an alcoholic drink you get a lovely little snack, water and cocoa gets you a smile.
This picture so reminds me of Italy, so beautiful and just beyond reach. A Girl was eating Ascoli olives, which sound disgusting but are fabulous. They are stuffed with meat and the breaded and cooked. She is alone, and never turned toward us.
This piazza is one of the most beautiful in Italy. So elegant, so well proportioned. In the summer the piazza if filled with laughing students and tourists.[...]

All you need is curiosity and time…
You don’t have to be an art historian or an archaeologist to enjoy all the countless treasures of Italy.
Neither do you have to be a gourmet to enjoy the delights of the Italian kitchen or a wine expert to enjoy the enormous variety of great wines.
All you need is curiosity and time…
Once you are in Italy and get even a small taste of what the country has to offer, you will want to return time and time again. Your interest will be sparked in subjects you had never before even considered. Your horizons broaden with the limitless discoveries you will make in this diverse and intriguing country.
Concentrate on one small area or region at a time. Choose one that is off the beaten track so that you can get a taste of the “real” Italy untouched by mass tourism.
Le Marche (pronounced “lay mar kay”) is a great place to start. Central Italy is where the Renaissance came about. Palaeolithic finds on Monte Cónero provide evidence of civilization from the 9th and 10th centuries BC! This easternmost region of central Italy is alluring in its variety of landscape, located as it is between the Adriatic Sea and the Apennine mountains. Most visitors never get beyond the sun and sand of the popular beaches of Le Marche’s 180 kms of coastline. However, the rewards are many for those adventurous ones who take the winding roads inland towards the numerous hilltop villages. There are cobblestone streets with buildings dating back to the Middle Ages and earlier. The spectacular panoramic views will keep you sitting on that café chair on the piazza drinking your cappuccino and dreaming of never having to leave!
For flights from abroad or from other Italian airports, the best point of arrival in Le Marche is the International Aereoporto di Falconare in Ancona.[...]
The best way to see Le Marche, or any region of Italy for that matter, is to rent a car. There are the usual rental firms at the airport but you should book in advance to make sure you get what you want. If you’re not an EU resident, you will need an International driver’s license. Buy good maps – Touring Club Italiano maps are excellent. You will find their offices in all the larger towns and their maps are also available in most of the larger book shops on in the petrol station shops on the motorways.
Whatever you wonder about and whenever any question comes to mind, don’t hesitate to ask people standing beside you in the bar or sitting at the table next to yours on the piazza. People are extremely friendly and helpful and are always more than willing to suggest places you must see, or food and wine you must try. Since this is an area without hoards of tourists, the locals are still curious about where you come from and what you are doing in Italy. It is very easy to start a conversation, even with limited Italian. The famous Italian use of arms, hands and facial expressions is an art that you will soon master and have fun in the process!

What To Do:

Conero National Park just south of Ancona. [...]Urbino is definitely worth a visit. Take the small roads, away from the motor route and tourist buses. Stop in the medieval villages for a walk around.[...]Sign up for a 3-4 week intensive language course [...]

Wherever you find yourself and at whatever time of year, you will feel the warm welcome of the people you meet.

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[...] Pierino, has been renovating Palazzo Urbani since he first bought part of it in 1970. The palazzo at that time was partly abandoned and parly divided into small appartments. An elderly man, Domenico, lived in one of the appartments at the back. In the course of renovating, our friend found a postcard Domenico had written, but never sent. It was to Maria, his fiancè whom he had left behind when he went off to war. He spent the last part of the war in a German concentration camp and, for one reason or another, was not able to contact Maria. At the end of the war, he was released and returned home to Monte San Martino only to find that Maria had married someone else. Here is what he wrote on the postcard:
Maria, You will not know that in this valley of tears beats a heart in unison with yours. You will never know that there is a soul that searches for you in the infinity of dreams. I tell you again that I love you Maria and I will love you equally, in silence and in secret torture all my life. Domenico.

Domenico never married but lived a sad and solitary life in his litte appartment in Palazzo Urbani.

In 2012, according to estimates, a total of 4600 foreign families bought a home in Italy. This is 13.5% more than the previous year and represents a total investment of 2.1 billion Euros.
Just like the old joke that involves a Frenchman, a German and an Englishman so the image could fit the buyers that have, up to now, invested in Italian property.
Historically, France, Germany and the United Kingdom were the first countries to take an active interest in the Italian property market, albeit favouring different parts of Italy. Historically, as a second home investment, Germans tended to buy in and around the lakes of northern Italy and later the Adriatic coast. Their geographical preferences, however, now seem to be changing. Although the Adriatic Riviera still accounts for more than 25% of Italian property searches made by German citizens this was closely followed by the Veneto coast at 23% and Liguria at 17%. Recent ‘hot spots’ among German clients include the Conero Riviera in the Marche at 5%, just one percentage point below Lake Garda, and Salento at 4%. In 47% of cases, Germans invest between 200,000 and 300,000 euros in a property. It would also appear that a new type of German buyer is emerging as in 13% of cases they are looking for a farmhouse and not simply a house.
With exactly the same investment budget as Germans our French cousins, however, still have a preference for Liguria. From West to East, Liguria still accounts for 21% property searches among the French. Their second preference is Tuscany at 11% while the third most popular search is very specific, Rome! The Italian capital is the place to buy for 5% of potential French investors.
The English, indeed British, in Italy have now become a sizeable minority, especially in Tuscany and central Italy. The hilly area between the provinces of Siena and Florence has even acquired the name ‘Chiantishire’ in recognition of the amount of ‘Brits’ that are here. It is no surprise then that Tuscany accounts for 29% of property searches by the ‘Brits’ followed by the beautiful cities of Venice (19%) and Rome (18%). Curiously, just behind these popular choices, is not another historic town but Milan which accounts for 16% of property searches made by UK citizens. The budget for British buyers appears to be slightly larger than the French and Germans at between 300,000 and 500,000 euros.
While these nationalities represent the historical footprint of foreign buyers in Italy the analysis from the research department at the property website, Immobiliare.it, highlight two important emerging ‘buyer profiles’, the Russians and Austrians.
Those with the deepest pockets would appear to be the Russian buyers. While 77% of Russian buyers estimate that they will not spend less that 500,000 euros on a property they end up, on average, spending 900,000 euros and above on a properties. Their searches tend to be polarised between two specific areas. Rome, which accounts for 41% of searches where they plan to buy apartments with at least 5 rooms, and Sardinia which accounts for 31% of searches for luxury Villas. Increasingly, however, the Russians have discovered the charms of the coast with 15% of their searches focused on Campania.
While the arrival of the Russians may not be a great surprise the same cannot be said for the Austrians who have recently become increasingly interested in Italian property. Their most common searches are for three-room apartments in Lignano Sabbiadoro in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region while there is also increasing interest in Veneto and Umbria at 21% and 11% respectively. Similar to the British, the Austrians would also appear to be mid to high end spenders with 43% budgeting to spend between 300,000 and 500,000 euros on their Italian property.