Le Marche has everything Tuscany has — hills, art, wine, coast — at a third of the price and with a tenth of the tourists.
Plan a trip here →Palazzo Ducale (€8): one of the finest Renaissance palaces in Italy. Raphael was born here (his house is a museum, €4). The hilltop university town feels like Florence in 1960 — intellectual, beautiful, unspoiled. Pop: 15,000.
The best-preserved walls in Le Marche — a complete circuit you can walk. Annual Halloween festival (Festa delle Streghe) transforms the town. Pop: 5,000.
The castle where Paolo and Francesca's doomed love affair from Dante's Inferno allegedly took place. Perfectly preserved fortress (€8). Pop: 4,800.
Lace-making tradition, Romanesque Santa Maria della Rocca (spectacular apse frescoes), and Rosso Piceno wine. Pop: 5,100.
5. Fermo — Roman cisterns (underground, €4), Piazza del Popolo, Adriatic views. 6. Recanati — birthplace of poet Giacomo Leopardi, the "Infinite" hilltop viewpoint. 7. Sarnano — thermal baths, Sibillini mountains base. 8. San Leo — fortress prison (Cagliostro died here), cliff-edge town that Dante also referenced.
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