Now we have been told that you can get some reasonably cheap land there, and after visiting there is a reason.
Don't get me wrong, there were places and sites we loved, but generally, Le Marche is over run with industry and its ugly big buildings, and some shocking looking new housing. The landscape has been scattered heavily in this, and you rarely see a post card view like Umbria or Tuscany. We stayed near the city of Ascoli Piceno, in a villa that was family run, Villa Cicchi, it was wonderful, terrific food and service. The bed was a bit solid as where the pillows , but after three nights it was not so bad!
We had two dinner meals there, and they kindly put us next to the open fire, which l am sure made everyone else wonder, who the hell are those people, l wore my bright colours, so they most likely thought l was someone, or a clown!.
The city of Ascoli Piceno is very pretty, it says it has one of the prettiest piazza in Italy, the piazza of the people!, but l am here to say the piazza santo stefano is prettier. That said it had some great piazzas, and buildings, we were there during a food festival, which always helps, and there were truck loads of restaurants to visit, along with accommodation places if you want to stay in town. The Duomo had a wedding, which we watched, l have seen better looking brides, and l think the groom had too, but he was in no way to make choices. The town is busier and bigger than you think, l believe it is around 100,000 people, and it was difficult getting out of. It lies between two rivers and hills, so l kept mixing up which hill was which and which river was which. We took the scenic trip back to the villa twice!
We went to an outlet area one day to see the Prada and Tods stores, and left with a ceramic robot pendant for Ewan and l left my jumper in a shoe store, so that was not a great event. But these outlet complex's are amazing, there were thousands of people, in some cases you have to queue to get in, and then you see people leaving with box's and bags from Prada etc, the sales are good but not that good, and there are sometimes reasons why they are on sale. These outlet places are all over Italy, many are around Florence and Milan, but all high end labels, like Gucci, Prada, Armani, Burberry , etc.
Another town we were told about was Fermo, nice piazza, the people l think stay inside till 5.30pm, l don't know but l think there may be a wolf man who wanders the streets eating people up till 5.30pm. Anyway we were sitting having a drink in the empty piazza, the bells rang 5.30 and then everybody came out. ( let me make it clear that Jayne thinks this statement is stupid) But thats all l have to say about the place. When l told the owner of the villa we went to Fermo, she looked at me with a look, l then felt safe to say, boring! She nodded.
But she then told me to visit Offida the next day, which we did and this was a real treat. It has the church of Santa Maria sitting up on the hillside, with two sides of vertical cliffs, so it stands out wonderfully well when you approach it . When you walk up to enter you go through the doors, and are met by a 2.5 metre high vaulted ceiling a Romanesque/Gothic temple, which is odd as the church is 30 metres high. This is the crypt and it is covered in Giotto style frescoes ( by Maestro of Offida 14,15thC), sadly they have fallen away in some cases, but there are some terrific examples, and vivid colours. There are two small alter blocks that apparently where used for sacrifices in the very very old days. The church was first built in 1039, then rebuilt in 1330, then some more work in 1694 and a bit more in the 18th C. You walk through this area which is truly incredible and up some small stairs into the main church which of course is hugh, more works by Maestro of Offida and Maestro Ugolino di Vanneda da Milano, as well as Fra Marino Angeli. The sad thing l noticed was some graffiti on the works, people had decided they should scratch their names into the pictures. The first graffiti l noticed was from 1500s, which puts it into a certain space, but then l noticed some from the 1990s, so l guess a graffitist is a graffitist. Either way you should visit this church. In the town is also a very small theatre, that can seat about 70 in the stalls, and 50 boxes that take about 2-4 people each. It is very tiny, and called the Serpente Aureo. It dates back to the around 1770, and modernized? In 1862, and again in 1922, and most recently in 2002. It is a real baroque design, with a 7 metre auditorium in the shape of a horse shoe. The theatre does not have a facade and you enter it through the portico of the town hall.
Another point of interest in Offida is that the women of Offida of all ages sit in doorways involved in their work of "Merletto a Tombolo" (bobbin lace) Now this is not my bag, but it is exceptionally skilled and in some cases very beautiful. Another thing of interest is at some point in summer they dress up in red and white, and get a white bull with red stripes on it and, the rest is a bit of a mystery, but thats what l got from the photos. But whenever there is an animal especially a bull involved you have to think it could be interesting.
And so our short trip into le Marche was interesting, with some terrific things to see, but the landscape is a bit sad, the people are friendly, the food is generally fried, there is a simpler way of living than Bologna, though they are both farming people, but the Bolognese tend to dress up and act with a certain sense of nobility. The people of le Marche are maybe a bit more real, but l wish they would dress up and loose a bit of weight, and stop building crappy houses. Ohh the coastline is a disaster with high rise apartments and hotels crowding the beach which is covered in summer in chairs and umbrellas, but that's Italy, and we love it.
Santa Maria ceiling, wow
Offida theatre
14thC graffiti
Ceiling of Santa Maria
One of the crypte alta's
Church of Santa Maria, Offida
Odd looking sculpture, check the tits
Jayne in the prettiest piazza?
