Tag Archives: urbino

Urbino’s main attraction did not disappoint. The duke’s palace is fit for, um, a duke with a lovely, colonnaded main courtyard. Part museum, part palace, the Palazzo Ducale is a vast place, with one high-ceiled, vaulted-ceiling room filed with famous or famous-looking artwork after another – I’ve become a Piero della Francesca fan.

There are two small and beautiful paintings of his in the palace and a famous Raphael painting, Portrait of a Gentlewoman.(Raphael was born here.) Beyond that, there are many huge oil paintings with Christian scenes (and at least one that the explainer beside it notes its anti-Semitic content, the old evil Jewish moneylender.)

The duke, Federico da Montefeltro, was a renaissance man/mercenary who used his war-got gains to beautify this city that became his power base. His palace now also is home to the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche.

There are also enormous tapestries, carved and inlaid wood wall reliefs (the dukes relatively small study with “trompe l’oeil marquetry panelling” is stunning), plaster reliefs over the enormous fireplaces. I thought we’d missed the reliefs of cherubs with gold penises that the Rick Steves guide mentioned but then realized I took a photo of dirck in front of them. Phew!

We’ve seen very few American tourists here. Or tourists in general. One nice Canadian named Ken stopped to say hello when he heard our English. The skies cleared today and there were beautiful views of the countryside beyond the stucco tiles roofs and domes of this walled city. We had quite the trek to our car, which us parked in far away free space that required walking up very steep streets ( think Ithaca with brick streets.) on the way back, we caught our breath at the wide open park by the fortress. More stunning views.

Two regional foods have won my heart. A thin flat bread from le Marche (the region including Urbino) called crescia that is sort of like a multilayered tortilla, served with cheese and sliced meats and a sharp crumbly white cheese called fossa from the neighbors Emilia Romagna region.

Dinner was at the homey and popular La Trattoria Del Leone near the central piazza, where we tried some unfamiliar foods typical of this area including olives encased in meat and deep fried, served with sour cream; passatelli (a rough looking pasta made with a dough of bread crumbs, eggs and Parmesan) cooked and served in meat broth, sliced well seasoned pork with potatoes and a dessert that was sort of like strudel, served with fresh cream.

What a different place we are in today. We said a sad goodbye to our rustic Tuscan retreat and drove east to Urbino, a walled city that feels very different than the others we visited. It’s a college town and apparently we arrived on graduation day so students wore Olive leave crowns reminiscent of Ancient Greece with goofy clothing from suits decorated with cartoon characters to a blow up fat suit. They were literally dancing the Macarena in the central historic plaza.

Our Airbnb is in an ancient building in the walled city on a narrow passageway along the outer ramparts but it is ultra sleek white and black contemporary Italian inside with a sprawling white leather couch, a giant portrait of a sneering Amy Winehouse, sleek white handleless cabinets, a very modern kitchen under a curving brick archway, interesting light fixtures.

We stopped along the way in the fortress town of San Leo also which has a spectacular setting almost in the clouds, it’s a tiny place with a huge dramatic castle high on a mountaintop, a small ancient town square with a few churches. Our only issue was we couldn’t seem to get down off the hilltop. A large potato festival that drew hundreds of people to a nearby village blocked the road to Urbino, but we finally figured out an alternative that took us around many an isolated hairpin turn.