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Clear night skies and brittle frosts, but sunny days so far this winter. The fava beans, peas, onions and garlic are all planted in the orto, ready to sprout in the spring. Winter returns to the Marche. And even if we're a bit late, may 2020 be a fine year for as many of you as possible.
Three stars for the Marche
The 2020 edition of the Michelin Red Guide for Italy lists four Marche restaurants with one or more Michelin stars, including one of Italy's 11 three-star award winners.
Uliassi, the outstanding fish restaurant in Senigallia (see photo below), can now boast the guide's top award, while the Madonnina del Pescatore, also in Senigallia, retain its worthy two stars. Two others restaurants boast one star - Nostrano in Pesaro and Andreina in Loreto.
Michelin Red Guide website for Italy
The ideal courtier
An exhibition dedicated to Baldassare Castiglione, the author of Il cortegiano, the celebrated book on the ideal Renaissance courtier that became one of the most popular books of the 16th century, is set to take place this spring.
The show, curated by Italian art historian Vittorio Sgarbi and French ex-culture minister Jack Lang, will be in Urbino's Palazzo Ducale; dates have yet to be published. The image below is a detail from Raphael's well-known portrait of Castiglione.
Carnival delights
The weeks leading up to Lent see carnival celebrations in many Marche towns. Two of the most lively take place in Offida and Fano.
In Offida on Shrove Tuesday bundles of canes stuffed with straw - known as i vlurd - are lit and taken in a flaming procession round the streets before being added to a giant bonfire in the main piazza.
Carnival festivities at Fano are claimed to be some of the oldest in Italy, and feature a cavalcade of massive floats (see photo below) on the two weekends before Lent.
Wheel meet again
The celebrated Giro d'Italia, one of the world's most famous cycle road races, this year again includes a stage that passes through the Marche. On Wednesday 20 May the race heads north along the Marche coast from Porto Sant'Elpidio as far as Rimini.
Giro d'Italia website (in English).
Not-so-lonely figures?
Initial figures from the regional authority for the period from January to October suggest 2019 was a good year for tourism in the Marche. The region saw an overall increase in visitors of +5.46% on 2018, while the number of foreign visitors grew by +1.32%.
Hopes are high that 2020 will also benefit from the recognition given to the region by the worldwide travel guides Lonely Planet: they named the region as one of the top ten regions to visit in their Best in Travel 2020 awards.
Lonely Planet Best in Travel 2020 best regions.
Infobyte #54:
91 comuni out of the region's 228 town councils have a website dedicated to tourism.
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