Delicious Italy - Ascoli Piceno

Tuesday, 07 September 2010 14:05

Ascoli Piceno

Written by Delicious Italy Team

font size decrease font size increase font size
Print
Email
Be the first to comment!

Rate this item

(0 votes)

You great a great sense of territory when you go to Ascoli Piceno in Le Marche. By this we mean their territory, the land of the Piceni, a regional Italian power with a 2000 year historical continuity.

In fact, the city rebelled against the Romans, repulsed Alaric and his Barbarians, drove away the Saracens in the 10th century and became a free city state from the 12th to 15th centuries.

As they say in the brochure to the city 'Ascoli Piceno' has no pretensions of being a great monumental city, but it certainly offers its visitors architecture, sculpture and paintings of various styles and different epochs in an astonishingly harmonious amalgamation'.

Walking around the historical centre you realise that the city fits inside a huge meander of the River Tronto as it meets the Castellano River.

Take your bearings from the Roman Theatre situated at the gateway to this natural defence. On the opposite side of the city is the Malatesta Fortress. A fittingly mighty building completed in 1540. Originally Roman it was destroyed in 1944, but rebuilt with the original stones to its full grandeur.

Between the two is the fabulous Piazza del Popolo or People's Square with its famous porticoes dating from 1509. Here you cannot miss the austere Captain's Palace with its tower and battlements, underneath which was recently found 380 square meters of Roman pavings.

Last modified on Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:20