From Marotta to Fermo

We continue in the direction Corinaldo, who welcomes us cwith its mighty walls and a thousand other stories of bricks and industriousness. We overcome Ostra Vetere, Serra dei Conti e Montecarotto. Curve after curve we arrive Moie, a fraction of the Municipality of Maiolati Spontini. Maiolati Spontini is famous for being the birthplace of the great musical composer Gaspare Spontini, il cui nome è stato aggiunto alla denominazione del comune nel 1939. Let's walk around Moie, per i sui vicoli di questo borgo dove il canto degli uccelli è più forte di qualsiasi altro suono è davvero emozionante. The houses, i fiori e qualche albero secolare parlano di una storia antica e così possiamo scoprire tra le vie del paese l’Abbey of Santa Maria delle Moie, un esempio significativo di architettura romanica.I monaci benedettini fin dal 1200 they settled in this place in the Vallesina offering refreshment, hospice and hospital service (Domus Hospitals) to travelers and pilgrims

After a fun road to go we go up to Cingoli, pretty town with walls almost completely intact, with numerous monuments that attest to its glorious past, immersed in neighborhoods with silent and suggestive streets. Located on the top of Mount Circe (o Belt) a 631 m. S.l.m. Due to its panoramic position in the Marche region it is called il “Balcony of the Marche“, for this reason it attracts many tourists from all over the peninsula. From its medieval walls it is in fact possible to view a large part of the neighboring territory. It is also part of the club of the most beautiful villages in Italy. In Cingoli you can visit the International Sidecar Museum, one of a kind, guards scooters, motorcycles and sidecars, from the first models of the turn of the century to the most recent ones, pieces used in the two world wars or belonged to important people. Its founder Costantino Frontalini, which in thirty years has collected over one hundred examples of this unique means of transport, creating a collection that, given the quality and quantity of the exhibits, it is interesting not only for fans of the sector..

The next stop is Tolentino where you can visit the Basilica of S. Nicola, originally dedicated to San Giorgio, which was built between the thirteenth century and the fourteenth century to then be completed and enriched in the following centuries. In 1476 it was dedicated to San Nicola da Tolentino who had been housed for about thirty years in the adjoining convent, dying there in 1305. The Cathedral of San Catervo is the cathedral of Tolentino, and co-cathedral of the diocese of Macerata-Tolentino-Recanati-Cingoli-Treia. In January of the 1961 Pope John XXIII raised it to the dignity of a minor basilica. In the Rancia district, on the plain located to the left of the Chienti river, the Rancia Castle, one of the symbols of the city. It looks like a quadrangular building consisting of a crenellated wall reinforced by three corner towers. Between 1353 and the 1357 it was transformed into the present castle at the behest of the Lords of Camerino. In those neighborhoods the battle of Tolentino (2-3 May 1815) che fu l’episodio decisivo della guerra austro-napoletana. Combattuta dal re di Napoli Gioacchino Murat contro gli austriaci guidati dal generale Federico Bianchi allo scopo di difendere il proprio regno dopo la precedente sconfitta di Occhiobello e la conseguente ritirata attraverso Faenza, Forlì e Pesaro, the battle saw the final Austrian victory, con il conseguente ritorno dei Borbone sul trono napoletano. Viene considerata talvolta la prima battaglia del Risorgimento italiano.

In piazza della Libertà in Tolentino, on the right with respect to the Town Hall, the bell tower of the Church of San Francesco rises, per la presenza di un singular watch, è divenuto ormai il simbolo della Città. L’ orologio ha una macchina collegata a quattro quadranti che indicano, the lunar phases, the italic hours, the astronomical time and the days of the week and month. E’ opera di Antonio Podrini di Sant’Angelo in Vado che lo costruì nel 1822.

We finish our tour with the city of Stop, a municipality of approx 37.000 inhabitants. Located at the foot of Monte Sabulo, rises beyond 320 m.s.l.m. The origins of the village are very ancient and it was one of the most important Roman colonies. Testimony of the Roman Fermo are the Roman cisterns, an underground building from the Augustan age (40 d.C.), of the surface of approx 2.000 square meters divided into 30 rooms placed on 3 parallel queues, made for the purpose of accumulating water reserves.

Stop, it really has a lot to offer: history, culture, art and excellent typical products. Colpisce subito i suoi visitatori accogliendoli nella sua splendida Piazza del Popolo: a real living room in the open air, which encloses a wide-ranging space between two rows of loggias. The beautiful overlooks the square Priory palace, the oldest building in the city that houses the art gallery. Inside, in a splendid seventeenth-century library full of manuscripts, a world map of 1713 completely handmade by a Fabriano cartographer, Amanzio Moroncelli. Another jewel of Fermo is the Teatro dell’Aquila: with its approx 1000 poste is one of the largest eighteenth-century theaters not only in the Marche,