Petritoli

Petritoli sits on a hill above the Aso valley, in the southern Fermano fifty kilometers north of Ascoli Piceno. The borgo grew around the year 1000 from the merger of three small castles, Petrosa, Petrania and Petrollavia, on a turn-off from the Via Salaria that linked Ascoli to Fermo. The Tre Archi, three neo-gothic arches set between two surviving fifteenth-century towers at the southern gate, frame the approach to the centro storico and have become the visual signature of the village.

Inside the walls the Teatro dell'Iride, an 1869 horseshoe-shaped opera house designed by Giuseppe Sabbatini and still in seasonal use, holds 270 seats across three tiers of boxes. The Aso valley below carries olive groves and mulberries; the local economy still leans on oil, fruit and small-scale wine. The 2016 earthquake damaged some buildings, repaired in stages through the following years.