Introduction to the region: Marche
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Full disclosure: When I first published this website in July of 2020, Marche was the region in which I had spent the least amount of time. Since then, I took a magical trip to explore smaller towns in the region around Ancona and added a featured post in 2023. On my first trip in 2016, I visited only the capital city of Ancona.
Additional disclaimer: I have now chosen to refer to this region as ‘Marche’ without the article ‘the’ as I had originally used. Formerly, I called this region ‘Le Marche’; however, I was challenged as to why I used the article for this region only, and not the other 19 Italian regions. I started to investigate, asking around, and consulting websites, and as I understand, this issue is debated without a consensus amongst Italians. (Please weigh in if you have a strong opinion or perspective to contribute to the debate!) As a lover of syntax and grammar, I find this argument interesting, but I understand that not all will share in this fastidious passion for words. Thus, in 2022, I revised ‘Le marche’ to ‘Marche’ although if you catch a few discrepancies, this is the ‘why’.
Here you can see the location of the region Le Marche in the context of the Italian peninsula
The region of Marche borders Emilia-Romagna to the north, a small bit of Tuscany to the west, much of Umbria to the southwest, Lazio and Abruzzo to the south with the Adriatic Sea on the east. Marche’s unique position and proximity, sharing so many regional borders, is a significant part of the regional identity. This characterization is reflected in the name of the region itself. A marca or ‘march’ is a term that harks back to the medieval period meaning a ‘borderland.’ These areas contrasted with ‘heartlands’ and were often used as a buffer zone; for example, the marches could warn of military advances or be used for trade negotiations.
Before conducting some research on this region, I was unaware that the word ‘marquis’ is derived from the concept of ‘marches’ as they were rulers of these lands (just as ‘counts’ traditionally ruled ‘counties’). My featured city is Ancona, and an important historical ‘march’ was named the ‘March of Ancona’, created by the papal states under Pope Innocent III in 1198. It was used as a defensive region for the papal states, or stato della chiesa (state of the church) with was essentially a large region of Italy, ruled by popes from the 8th century to the period of Italian unification in 1861. The papal states covered many modern-day regions in central Italy such as Lazio, Umbria, Emilia-Romagna and then Le Marche.
Della Francesco, Piero. The Duke and Duchess of Urbino, 1465, Tempera on wood, The Uffizi, Florence, Italy.
I plan to visit the cities of Urbino and Ascoli Piceno next. Although English speaking tourism in Marche has still not ‘taken off’ per se, and this Guardian article is from quite a few years ago, it provides useful information. Urbino, a picturesque hilltop town, is filled with art and still off the beaten track. Urbino always recalls my beloved AP Art History class in high school, an important factor in my love affair with Italy, as I visited for the first time at 18 years old on an AP Art History trip. We studied the Renaissance masterpiece known as The Duke and Duchess of Urbino by Piero della Francesca, a portrait style diptych that features the couple in profile, facing each other yet separated by the frame. I remember analyzing the geometrical features related to gender, the duchess painted with rounded shapes and the duke with sharper angles. This element of the 15th century painting always stuck with me; however, in light of this website, I would now focus on the background, the landscape representing the region of Marche. To finish anticlimactically, this painting is housed not in Marche but rather the great Uffizi in Florence. Still, the region has more art related fame to claim; the master Renaissance artist, Raffaelo Sanzio, was born in Urbino, Marche as well. The landscapes of rolling hills in this Renaissance painting, however, are on display rather unchanged over 500 years later. Visit any number of the hilltop towns throughout the region and take it in the beauty.
Panoramic views from the town of Osimo near the beautiful area of Conero.