Fossombrone

Fossombrone sits on the Metauro river in the foothills of the central Apennines, 30 km inland from Pesaro. The site has been continuously occupied since the 8th century BC: a north-Piceno village, then a partial Celtic settlement, then the Roman colony of Forum Sempronii, founded around 120 BC along the Via Flaminia by the consul Caius Sempronius Gracchus. The Roman city's stratigraphy is visible in the archaeological area just east of the modern centre.

Above it, the medieval and Renaissance town climbs a long single street to the Corte Alta — the ducal palace built by Federico da Montefeltro and finished by the Della Rovere family in the 15th and 16th centuries — with a frescoed Sala dell'Investitura. Lower down, the Casa Cattabrini and the Cattedrale dei Santi Aldebrando e Agostino anchor the centro storico. The setting is the real surprise: just 8 km upstream, the Metauro narrows into the Furlo Gorge, where the Romans cut a 38-metre road tunnel through the cliff in 76 AD under Vespasian — the Galleria del Furlo — that's still walkable. The gorge and the surrounding nature reserve are some of the wildest landscape in the Marche.