Ascoli Piceno

Situated on a spur of rock at the confluence of the Tronto and Castellano, Ascoli Piceno, is a city of extraordinary beauty and interest.

On the basis of Neolithic finds, we can say that since that time Ascoli was home to a settlement an earlier migration of the Sabines. The latter, in fact, according to an old tradition, came to the Piceno between the sixth and seventh centuries. BC. A woodpecker (bird sacred to Mars) would be integrated with the native population, giving rise to the "Piceni", who made of Ascoli their centre of reference.

Then their experiences became those of the Roman Empire. Sacked by the Goths, Lombards, and the troops of Frederick II; but every time it was presented again as a centre of great civilization and vitality.
The same force and the same energy that shines through its symbolic stone, travertine, which with its fascinating colours, makes the vestiges of a great past so enchanting.

From the extraordinary Roman ruins, through to Romanesque and Gothic art and other evidence that made the city of Ascoli the town of the hundred towers, with never-ending surprises, especially in the famous Piazza del Popolo.

Enriched on three sides by the lodge with 59 arches and crenulated a tower of the Palazzo dei Capitani del Popolo, this place is the "lounge" of the city and contains within itself the history of Ascoli Piceno.

A story that traces the halls of the Civic Art Gallery and the diocesan museum, authentic jewellery rich in works of art, from the pluvial of Nicolò IV del sec.XIII, to the works of Carlo Crivelli, Pietro Alemanno, Cola dell'Amatrice, Tiziano, Reni, Luca Giordano, G.Ghezzi, Pietro Vannini, A.De Magistris, N.Monti, Paci.

Ascoli is not just art. Its origins are tied to the two annual events: the hectic Carnival and the magical Quintana.

A walk through the streets of the old city of Ascoli is like casually browsing through a book of art's history and have luck to meet the most representative and expressive illustrations for various periods of Italian art. (Jean-Paul Sartre)