What is Sant'Angelo in Vado known for?

Italy's oldest white truffle fair after Alba, founded 1963, running across October and the first half of November in Palazzo Mercuri. Roman noble house from the late first century AD, with 27 rooms of polychrome mosaics depicting Neptune, Dionysus and Medusa, excavated from 2003. First-century BC Roman municipium underneath the modern town, with cardo, forum and baths still emerging from excavations.

Where is Sant'Angelo in Vado?

Sant'Angelo in Vado is a comune in the province of Pesaro e Urbino, Marche region of Italy, about 72 kilometers from Rimini.

Marche · Pesaro e Urbino

Sant'Angelo in Vado

A 359-meter terrace town on the upper Metauro, built over Roman Tifernum Mataurense and host of Italy's oldest white truffle fair after Alba.

72 km / 45 mi

Nearest hub (Rimini)

3,884

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Città del Tartufo

Why come

Sant'Angelo in Vado sitson a river terrace on the right bank of the upper Metauro, sixty kilometers from Perugia and twenty from Urbino. The Roman city of Tifernum Mataurense lies underneath the modern town: a municipium from the first century BC, built on a grid with the cardo maximus running past the public baths to a forum under the former convent of Santa Caterina. Excavations from 2003 onward uncovered the Domus del Mito, a 1,000-square-meter noble house from the late first century AD with 27 rooms and a sequence of polychrome figurative mosaics of Neptune and Amphitrite, Dionysus and Medusa that survive almost intact. The white truffle fair began in 1963, the oldest in Italy after Alba, and runs across the weekends of October and the first half of November in Palazzo Mercuri and the streets around it. The Centro Sperimentale di Tartuficoltura, the national research center for truffle cultivation, has been based here since the 1980s.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where Sant'Angelo in Vado fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip

Gallery

4 photos · scroll →

Known for

Domus del Mito
Roman noble house from the late first century AD, 1,000 square meters across 27 rooms, with intact polychrome mosaics of Neptune, Amphitrite, Dionysus and Medusa.
Palazzo Mercuri
Liberty-style palace with frescoed rooms, used as the central venue of the Mostra Nazionale del Tartufo Bianco each October and November.
Mostra Nazionale del Tartufo Bianco
Italy's oldest white truffle fair after Alba, founded 1963, running across the weekends of October and the first half of November.
Tifernum Mataurense
Roman city underneath the modern town, a municipium from the first century BC, with the cardo maximus, public baths and forum still being excavated.
Chiesa di Santa Maria Extra Muros
Romanesque church outside the original walls, with frescoes from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and a wooden crucifix from the same period.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September into November are the working months for Sant'Angelo in Vado. The Metauro valley turns green from April, the Domus del Mito and the archaeological park run guided visits through the warm months, and the white truffle fair fills the centro storico across the October and November weekends. July and August touch the high twenties at 359 meters; the terrace position above the river keeps the evenings cooler than the lower Metauro plain. The biggest weeks fall in late October and early November when truffle hunters from across central Italy gather at Palazzo Mercuri. November through March outside the fair is cool and quiet, with the Roman mosaics often photographed in winter light through the protective canopy.