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This small agricultural and commercial centre in mountain country, has an attractive centro storico and a wealth of churches and merchants houses that bear witness to the town's boom years during the 16^th-18^th centuries.

Here was also the birthplace of a number of important Baroque artists and architects including the brothers Taddeo and Federico Zuccari, who achieved fame in Rome during the second half of the 16^th Century.

Nowadays it is also known for its contribution to gastronomy; Italy's first nursery to commercially cultivate the much-prized truffle is here. Sadly, they don't actually grow the truffles directly. Instead, saplings of selected trees have their roots impregnated with the spores of the underground fungus, then are planted in areas with the very particular soil necessary.

After a wait of some ten years and much luck, the first truffles are ready to be dug up. The technique has proved so successful that large tracts of the Umbro-Marchigiani Appennines are being turned over to truffle reserves.

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