Ascoli Piceno the city of a hundred towers

The historic center of Ascoli Piceno is built almost entirely in travertine and is among the most admired in the region and central Italy, thanks to its artistic and architectural wealth. It preserves several noble and bell towers and for this reason it is called the City of a hundred towers. Municipality, the historic Caffè Meletti in Art Nouveau style and the Church of San Francesco, which is leaning against the Loggia dei Mercanti, an elegant construction of 1513. Another very elegant urban space is Piazza Arringo, the oldest square in Ascoli, where there are very interesting buildings: the medieval Baptistery of San Giovanni, the Cathedral of Sant'Emidio, which contains the crypt also dedicated to the patron saint and the large polyptych of Sant'Emidio by Carlo Crivelli, signed and dated 1473; the Palazzo Vescovile, the Palazzo dell'Arengo, seat of the Civic Art Gallery and some municipal offices. On the opposite side of the square you can recognize the seventeenth-century facade of Palazzo Panichi, seat of the State Archaeological Museum. Among the other buildings of religious architecture not to be missed are: the Romanesque Church of Ss. Vincenzo and Anastasio, the 13th-century Church of San Pietro Martire, the Church of Sant'Agostino, rebuilt in the 9th century, the 16th-century Church of Santa Maria della Carità . The temples dedicated to the patron saint are also worth mentioning, such as Sant'Emidio alle Grotte and Sant'Emidio Rosso. Among the monuments are to be remembered: the Roman bridge of Solestà, the ruins of the Roman theater, the caves of the Annunziata, a cyclopean construction of the Roman period, the Pia Fortress, the Malatesta Fort, the nineteenth-century Ventidio Basso Theater, the Longobard Palace with the Torre degli Ercolani, one of the two hundred surviving towers that appear in medieval chronicles. Near the city there is the Rocca di Castel Trosino, an ancient Lombard settlement near the Castellano stream.

The surrounding area

The surroundings of Ascoli Piceno offer breathtaking landscapes, suggestive architecture, ample possibilities for summer and winter excursions.

In 25 minutes by car you will reach the beaches of the Adriatic coast with the enchanting villages perched on the sea (Grottammare, San Benedetto del Tronto and its fishing port, Cupra Marittima). At the same time but aiming for the sky you will arrive on the Montagna dei Fiori, beautiful even in the hot season, where there is the ski resort of Monte Piselli, a little further down the plateau of Colle San Marco opens up, perfect for a relaxing pic- nic or a horseback ride, on this hill, with the sculpted façade overlooking one of its bare travertine walls, there is an Hermitage of rare beauty. In the heart of the city, surprising stretches of river for bathing (Castellano), some reachable with a short trek, give intense coolness in the hottest season; above one of these stretches, where there is a swimming pool of sulphurous water, stands the preserved medieval village of Castel Trosino.

Not to be missed a few kilometers from Ascoli the fortress of Arquata del Tronto, the Bourbon fortress of Civitella del Tronto and as in a fairy tale: the villages of the lost Apennines of Monte Ceresa in the Sibillini National Park, the flowering of the Piana del Castelluccio , Mount Carrier, the lunar Lake of Pilato, the Gorges of the Infernaccio, the Grotta della Sibilla (unforgettable excursions).