Slow down and relax in style: Discover Italy’s Le Marche region

Slow” is a buzzword applied to TV, food and travel as an antidote to today’s hectic lifestyle. Slowing down to enjoy a holiday, rather than exhausting yourself darting between sight-seeing destinations, is a rare pleasure, and there’s no better destination for it than Le Marche, one of Italy’s least well-known regions. 

Sandwiched between the Apennines to the west and Adriatic Sea to the east, Le Marche (literally “the marches”) stretches about 100 miles down central Italy’s east coast. It’s got medieval hill towns to rival Umbria, gorgeous rolling greenery and inviting seaside enclaves equal to Tuscany, and its own imposing mountain range, the Sibillini. Yet 

Le Marche remains comparatively empty of tourist traffic. That’s partly because it lacks big urban centres and the country’s important artworks and architecture. On the upside, it means there’s no obligation to cram in museum visits; instead, you have the perfect excuse for enjoying a slow-time holiday, soaking up the atmosphere. 

If you do want culture, there’s plenty. The hill town of Urbino boasts a Renaissance palace and art museum, for example, and the seaside resort of Pesaro hosts an annual Rossini Opera Festival and boasts Roman and Byzantine relics in its San Terenzio cathedral. 

My husband and I have visited the region almost a dozen times, drawn by its proximity to Bologna (for cheap flights), its seaside and mountains, its affordability and the slower pace of life. Through Homeaway.co.uk we found an idyllic villa just outside Cupramontana, a picturesque Le Marche hilltop town with a cobbled square and narrow pedestrian alleyways. From hidden side streets you can glimpse locals preparing fresh tortelloni through the open doors of the local trattorias. 

Our villa, an old farmhouse restored with all mod cons, was the perfect base for our slow holiday. It overlooked velvety green farmland to the dramatic hills of the Gola della Rossa National Park beyond, a view of which one could never tire.

We spent afternoons by the pool watching the swallows swoop down to skim bugs off the water and deliver them to their chicks waiting overhead. We had evening barbecues of fresh fish just plucked from the Adriatic, and afterwards played card games or wandered into Cupramontana to have ice cream in the bustling square. 

Like many Italian villages, it comes alive at night. Residents empty into the centre for the simple pleasures of enjoying a walk, a chat with neighbours or an early evening drink before heading home for a late dinner or to one of the many affordable local eateries.

The atmosphere is convivial and child friendly, and we found ourselves there on one of the biggest nights of the year, Night of the Verdicchio, when the population comes out to eat in the town square and celebrate and drink the region’s main product, a delicious white wine. 

On other nights we tried out Cupramontana’s local eateries, eager to sample the authentic cuisine of Le Marche. Our favourite was Anita’s, an atmospheric trattoria packed with locals enjoying tortelloni with cream, tagliatelle with ragu sauce, grilled meats and mountains of vegetables, all washed down with local wine. The bill was reasonable and the evening perfect. 

We were eager to enjoy the Italian beach experience – to my mind a truly civilised affair that involves renting sun loungers on a private beach that has changing rooms, a bar and restaurant. We headed to the nearest seaside town of Senigallia, an enclave whose beaches were packed with deeply bronzed Italians showing off their tans.

After swimming and sunning ourselves all morning, we headed to the promenade that’s peppered with seafood restaurants overlooking the sea – our favourite was Hostaria l’Angolino Sul Mare, a packed, open-air establishment with a seafaring theme to its decor. The kitchen served up such delicious spaghetti alle vongole (with fresh clams) that we came back for it twice. 

To counteract our epic amounts of eating and lounging around, we decided to devote an afternoon to exploring the hills beyond our holiday villa. About 20 minutes’ drive away was the Tempio del Valadier, a small 19th-century domed chapel built in the mouth of a cave quite a way up a mountain. It’s marvellously incongruous to discover a beautiful neo-classical temple deep in the wilderness, so far from civilisation. 

It was apparently built as a place of pilgrimage for sinners, and it’s fair to say they’d already punished themselves enough climbing up the mountain to reach it. We cooled off in the cave behind it before exploring a tiny medieval sanctuary on the same site, Sanctuary of Santa Maria infra Saxa, looking like something out of one of Grimms’ fairy tales. 

On Sunday we mooched around the market at Apiro, another pretty hilltop village where we browsed stalls selling clothes, homeware and delicious local sausages and cheeses, before retiring to a bar. We enjoyed a day out at Cingoli lake, where some of us braved the chilly water and the rest lounged on the pebbly beach. 

In other words, we took each day slowly, determined to make time to enjoy the views, food and different pace of life in this verdant corner of Italy.

Way to go

HomeAway, the world leader in holiday rentals, offers more than a million online bookable holiday rental homes in 190 countries. 

See homeaway.co.uk for more information. Sixt rent a car offers a wide selection of cars, 4x4s and sports cars at Bologna Airport. See sixt.co.uk. For an early flight, make it easy on yourself by staying the night before at Gatwick Hilton from £119. Visit HolidayExtras.co.uk or call 0800 131 3777.