People are always asking about places to visit in Italy. My feeling is that there is almost no area not worth visiting. One such area is the Marche. Marche is the least touristed region of Italy north of Rome. Its location is about half way from Rome to Venice and is only assessable really by car. Its even with Toscana on the east side of Italy. We only visited the northern half of Le Marche and want to return to see the southern area. We will base ourselves in Ascoli Piceno to do that<BR><BR>Its getting time that people may be looking at their October and November travel plans to Italy. That’s a great time to go the Marche. My wife and I spent our anniversary a few years back in a truly out of the way place with a culinary highlight that was truly a treat! We stayed in Cagli just a few km from Acqualagna. Many people have heard of both the Umbria and Alba varieties of truffles, both black and white. The sad truth is that the sales of these culinary marvels far outstrips their production. When you eat a truffle said to come from Alba or Umbria, there is more than a fair chance it came from Acqualagna. Acqualagna and its surroundings is home to over 70% of Italy’s truffle production. <BR><BR>Each year the festival is held the last weekend of October, November 1 and the first two weekends in November. If November 1 falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, the adjacent Monday or Friday are typically included. There are booths on either side of the piazza that would be at home at any church bazaar or high school festival. On one side are the truffle dealers standing behind piles of fresh truffles. You can get high just from the aroma. A small pile of truffles at $60 and ounce can be worth tens of thousands of dollars. One of the dealers we saw was an older woman dressed in furs and diamonds. We bought a small white truffle from her for about $40.00. We used it in two meals. There are artisans, a local marching band and crowds of people. <BR><BR>Here is the URL for Acqualagna<BR>http://www.comune.acqualagna.ps.it/<BR><BR>Here is a website with a list in Italian of truffle fares in Le Marche. From what I can tell the fare will be October 27, Friday November 1 and Sunday November 3 (I am not sure that it will be held on the 2nd but I think so) and then closes on November 10. You can probably get more info from the Marche tourist offices. Look at Marche Voyager for more information<BR>

This is the email address for information at the festival.<BR>[email protected] a.ps.it<BR><BR>Here is the URL for Marche Voyager, one of the best travel websites we have ever seen. You will need it if you plan on visiting this delightful area.<BR><BR>http://www.le-marche.com/italia/<BR><BR>If the idea of visiting the truffle festival excites you, or you are just looking for somewhere off the beaten path, here are our recommendations:<BR><BR>Stay in Cagli. This is a small town of 3000 or 5000 on the SS3 or the Via Salaria, the Roman salt road. Roman soldiers used to be paid in salt, or salaria, hence the word salary. You are centrally located to Urbino, Acqualagna, San Leo, Pergola, Ancona and Gubbio. Its about 3 hours driving from Roma or Firenze, 5 to Venezia (if you don’t get lost like we did!). We have stayed at Casale Torre del Sasso, a wonderful restored castelette across the river from the old town. There are 4 rental choices. Mario is your gracious host. Mario speaks very little English, but is fluent in French and German. The Casale was built in the 15th century. It is well furnished with fairly reliable hot water and nice kitchen equipment. It is not super luxurious but very nice. Mario is a local celebrity and you will be well treated in the town. Here is the URL:<BR><BR>http://utenti.lycos.it/torresasso/index.htm<BR><BR>Cagli is a town dating back in present form to the 1500’s and earlier. It has some spectacular architecture due to the Duke Frederico Montefeltro of Urbino. Georgio Martini designed the Torrione or small tower that now serves as a municipal building. It is just outside the walls of the old city. There is a delightful piazza just inside the walls with several very nice bars. Just outside the walls is Il Pino which has wonderful little pastries and sandwiches. There are several craft stores in the walled portion including one that specializes in glass and lamps. We also had a great time at the local wine bar drinking the rustic wines of the region. There is a small market and two outdoor vegetable markets. We only ate one meal there at a pizzeria which was quite good. The web masters of Marche Voyager live in the area and have a rental unit on their farm. Three also recommend a couple of restaurants in Cagli as well.<BR><BR>Dining: <BR><BR>We loved several meals we had in Acqualagna and Gola del Furlo. We loved La Ginestra in Gola del Furlo. It is part of a small resort style hotel and was an excellent restaurant. We had a small truffle menu and a large one as well. The result was about 10 different dishes loaded with white truffle shavings. The wine list is interesting and very fairly priced. As I recall dinner for 2 with truffles and a bottle of Venagazzu Capo del State ran about $200.00. It was a bargain.<BR><BR>

We also had a lovely meal at Ristorante Il Furlo. More formal and yet cozy, this was a treat as well but not as memorable as La Ginnestra. Very good. We had a third meal at Leon d’Oro and it was quite an experience. There was a wedding going on in the reception room which was constantly spilling out into the restaurant. No English was spoken here so it was quite a treat and adventure.<BR><BR>Acqualagna has a wonderful butcher shop just off the main piazza. You will recognize it by the homemade prosciutto di Cingale (with the fuzzy skin still on) hanging in the laboritorio next door. For the festival he had a split cingale in the window of the shop as well. The folks there cut everything to order, make their own sausages and salami and prosciutto. You simply have to try their tiny and rich Salsicce di Tartufo. These are small nuggets of salami filled with truffles. Heavenly. But be warned, if you eat them you will actually begin to smell like truffles!<BR><BR>What else to do:<BR><BR>We did not ever make it to Gubbio on our trip to Cagli, a real disappointment. But we did many other wonderful things. <BR><BR>San Leo- a collection of wonderful ancient churches and a castle on the top of a hill. The fortress is worth some time but be sure to go to the 9th century church. There is sure to be an art exhibit in the town. <BR><BR>Carpegna- a market town on the way from Cagli to San Leo. It has a wonderful restaurant called Trattoria da Silvanna. It’s a local hangout. While we dined there first we saw a table of 12 women finishing their lunch. Next was seated at the same table their husbands. We had fun guessing who belonged to whom! The food was rustic and very abundant. We had a tris of pasta or three pastas served one after another. Each one was enough for my wife and I but we managed to do justice to the huge amount of food. The owner was so saddened at our saying that we were full that she forced us to try a small mixed grill. Carpegna is famous of its prosciutto which is made from the hind legs of the pig. That leaves a lot of pork around for the locals. We had grilled sausages, ribs, loin, skewered meat and more. It would have been enough for 4 if two of the folk were football players! We drank an Amarone with the food and it was perfect. The wine list is a bunch of bottles sitting on the counter. The owner totaled up our bill, took one look at it and then scratched out the total. She charged us less. I recall the meal being $55.00. In the US the wine alone would have cost more! Carpegna is not a beautiful hill town but a slice of real countryside life in Italy. The markets will have more people selling socks and underwear than folk selling fresh fruit. But it was a wonderful break.<BR>

Pergola is home to a museum with the Bronze d’Orati or the Bronzes of gold. One reason why we have so few bronzes dating back to the Imperial days is that bronze, when buried in the ground, dissolves. This set of statues discovered in the 30’s or so, were clad in gold leaf. The gold leaf caused an electro chemical reaction which preserved the statues. Now in the true Italian style, they have been argues over, lawsuits have been filed and there are controversies over what the represent and how they have been conserved. Fighting aside, they now reside in Pergola most of the year. You will be given a tour of the art museum before seeing the bronzes. You will also seee a fascinating film on them. One theory is that they were statues of Livia and Tiberius. Another is that they were statues of a local family who were supported of one of the Roman emperors who fell out of favor. The statues were buried to hide the loyalty of the deposed Emperor so the new Emperor didn’t have an excuse to steal the estate of the family. Whatever&gt; They are simply amazing and worth the drive.<BR><BR>Genga is home to the Grotte dei Frassasi, one of Italy’s largest cave systems. You get an hour to 3 hour tour of an amazing underground wonderland. There are formations large enough to hold the cathedral of Milan to ones resembling Dante. Its incredible and remote. You will probably be the only American there if you go! It can be combined with a visit to Pergola for a full day of touring.<BR><BR>Urbino was home to Frederico Montefeltro, Duca di Urbino. He was the man who really was one of the starters of the Renaissance. He was a mercenary general who fought many of the wars in the 1400’s for whatever city-state would give him the most money. He apparently was very good at what he did. He used the money he made to both build a great Palazzo but also to take care of his peasant citizenry. The result was a city of elegance where the Duke could walk among his subjects freely with no danger to himself. Quite unusual for his time. The result today is a beautiful town, very elegant with an active university. The Ducal palace is a must see. It has several major works of art including Pierro della Francesca’s Flagellation of Christ. The town is worthy of lots of aimless wandering broken up by dining at the various wine bars along the way. There is not a lot to do there but one can do it very well.<BR>

Urbania is a market town with an amazing tiny historic center. It is just a remnant of its original size due to Allied bombing in WWII. There is a church with an amazing mosaic of Mary and an alter decorated with unexploded bombs. <BR><BR>There is so much more to do. We did not visit the zone of production of Verdicchio by the town of Jesi. We missed Ancona and its fishing industry completely. We did a day trip to Ravenna to see the incredible mosaics there. We spent an inordinate amount of time just driving here and there to visit places we spotted in the distance. One day we will return to Cagli gladly for another week or more if just wandering from town to town enjoying one of the least touristed areas in all of Northern and Central Italy.<BR>

Great posting. I would also observe that, while a car is a great asset to visit the smaller towns in the Marche, there is public transportation available (trains and buses) connecting the major cities and towns to each other and to other major Italian cities. I would not want to dissuade potential visitors who might prefer to use public transportation to visit the region.

While I do realize that you can visit some towns with the train, the trip we took would have been impossible without the car. I think that if someone was transit dependent, this itinerary would be useless.

Great posts, dean. I agree with your assessment of Le Marche, but do worry that too many visitors might make it a bit less wonderful. <BR><BR>I also agree with you that a car makes the area a great deal more accessible. To get to Urbino from any of the major towns, for instance, you have to take the train to Pesaro (on the coast) and then take a bus on to Urbino (in the interior). This trip takes less than an hour by car, several hours by bus (at least it did the last time I checked the schedule). Not difficult driving, particularly out in the country (and most of it is country).

I agree that your particular itinerary would demand an automobile. However, there are several important towns in the Marche which can be visited by public transport: Urbino, Ascoli, Loreto, Recanati, Macerata, etc., not to peak of Ancona. I'm not dissuading people from renting cars, but I am pointing out that there is some public transport available!

Great report, Dean! Thanks.

Just a little addendum. The beach of Sirolo, right below the Coreno mountain has been prized as one of the best and most intact beaches of Italy by Legambiente, an italian environmentalist group (a few pics at http://www.anconanetwork.com/comune_sirolo/index.html).

Conero is on the east coast of Le Marche in the south. The local wine is Rosso Conero and Bianco Conero. Rosso Conero can range from plonk to quite good. Le Terrazze is a top notch producer as is Umani Ronche. We will want to visit there on our next trip to Marche. Its not far from Ascoli Piceno, about an hour.

Dean<BR><BR>With your interest in food, you may check if my Friend RoDante is in Town (he lives in Loreto). He is a chef (a god one!) and often works preparing meals at his clients homes (when he is not working in some restaurant, right now he is in Sardinia). And he is a lovely perso too. Not cheap, but a real food experience for those who can afford it (no, I don't get paid for this, I am just a friend and I tasted his cooking at a couple it.hobby.cucina newsgroup meetings).<BR>www.rodante.it

FWIW: We stayed in the converted monastery at the top of Monte Conero a few years ago. The room had a great view of the sea and the kitchen was good. The beach at Sirolo is a few km away. We tried to lunch in one of the shacklike tratorrie on the beach on First Communion Sunday and had to wait hours drinking the local white. But the wait was amusing and worth it. Marche is wonderful. Don't tell anybody.

I plan to visit LeMarche the end of September this year. I have family whom I've never met that live in San Ginesio. Has anyone ever visited this area of LeMarche?