Urbino & Hidden Gems in Le Marche

We spend all day in the extraordinary Renaissance city of Urbino. We start with the UNESCO listed Ducal Palace which was built by Duke Federico da Montefeltro and immortalised by Castiglione who staged his Book of the Courtier. Here we explore the palace’s extraordinary features, such as a lararium, a pagan feature unique in a Renaissance palazzo and the stunning studiolo, a study which includes the most intricate intarsia work in Italy. We continue to the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, housed within the palazzo, which contains such masterpieces as Raphael’s Muta and Piero della Francesca’s Madonna of Senigallia. A walk away we proceed to Raphael’s House, the great man’s birthplace which contains Giovanni Santi’s Annunciation, as well as to the Cathedral, notable for its coffered cupola. In the afternoon, we venture to the Museo Diocesano Albani which houses important works by Giovanni Santi and Andrea da Bologna. We end the day with a visit to the Oratorio of San Giovanni in order to admire the amazing late Gothic fresço cycle by the Salimbeni brothers.

Today, we drive to Pesaro, where the court of the duchy was transferred in 1564. Here we visit the Cathedral which has two overlapping sets of mosaics, dating from the 4th and 6th centuries discovered in the 19th century renovation of the cathedral; particularly notable is the Byzantine floor which is rich in symbolism. We proceed to the Palazzo Mosca, for the famous Coronation of the Virgin by Bellini once housed in the Church of San Francesco in Pesaro, as well as Guido Reni’s Fall of the Giants, notable for its remarkable foreshortening. We end the morning considering Roman Pisaurum, in particular the Archaeological Area of the Via dell’Abbondanza which includes the remains of an elite house from the 1st century AD replete with mosaics. After lunch we drive a short distance for a visit to the Villa Imperiale built in the 16th century under Francesco Maria della Rovere who wanted a Villa di Delizia; here we see Renaissance gardens and stunning Mannerist frescoes.

This morning we journey to the coastal city of Senigallia in order to visit the Rocca Roveresca, a superb example of Renaissance defensive architecture built under Giovanni della Rovere and notoriously sacked by Cesare Borgia who carried out a massacre of his rivals here. The tour continues to the Fenice Archaeological site, where we see an excavated section of the Roman town of Sena, including taverns, shops and part of a street. After lunch we drive to Ancona to visit the important collection of art found at the Pinacoteca Comunale, which includes such masterpieces as Titian’s Pala Gozzi, the first painting he signed and dated, and Crivelli’s jaw dropping Madonna col Bambino. We walk a short distance to the National Archaeological Museum where we examine artefacts dating to the time of the native Picentes, the Celtic Senoes who migrated here in the 4th century, and finally the Romans. We end the day at the monumental Arch of Trajan commissioned by the emperor to commemorate the works he carried out on the port and built by the famous Apollodorus of Damascus.

We start with a brief stop at the Church of San Bernardino which houses the tombs of Federico da Montefeltro, along with his son Guidobaldo and his wife, Elisabetta Gonzaga, before proceeding to Fano to visit some remarkable Roman and Renaissance sites. These include the Arch of Augustus, the monumental entrance to the city from the Via Flaminia and the Church of Santa Maria Nuova, which houses Perugino’s Fano Altarpiece, a masterpiece dating to 1497 whose predella paintings may be the work of his famous pupil, Raphael. We end the day with a visit to the haunting remains of the 13th century Church of San Francesco aggrandised in the 14th century, suppressed in 1870 and a victim of an earthquake in 1930 which saw the collapse of the roof. We return to Urbino for a free afternoon where we can enjoy the splendours of Urbino.

Time permitting, we have free time in Urbino before we start our journey back to London.