Introduction to Ancona, Italy

Severely damaged by war and earthquakes, workaday ANCONA has a few historical monuments embedded in a tangle of commercial buildings. The modern centre is a grid of broad avenues and palm-shaded piazzas, while the station area, with its heavy trucks travelling noisily to and from the port, will probably make you want to take the next train out. However, as the Adriatic's largest port it's a convenient departure point, and you may well pass through in order to catch one of the regular ferries to Greece and Croatia. The city is even more of a gateway to the Marche region of late with Ryanair's direct flights from the UK to Falconara airport 10km away – so it's quite possible you may make an overnight stop.

Regular buses run along the seafront from the train station to the port, passing the pentagonal Lazzaretto, built within the harbour in the eighteenth century as a quarantine station for immigrants. The port itself is headed by a well-preserved Roman arch, the Arco di Traiano, raised in honour of Emperor Trajan, under whose rule Ancona first became a major port. Behind it is the Arco Clementino, a piece of architectural self-congratulation by Pope Clement XII, who made Ancona a free port in the eighteenth century and thus considered himself Trajan's equal.

On a steep hill overlooking the port rises the town's Romanesque Duomo. What survives of old Ancona is spread out below it, and a wander up the hill is the most pleasant way of filling in time here. At the foot of the hill is Piazza della Repubblica, from which Via della Loggia leads past the Loggia dei Mercanti, whose Gothic splendours can be seen in all their glory now that the layers of grime have been cleaned off – you can make out the figures of medieval dignitaries and horsemen below its elaborately carved windows. Walk along the narrow road into Piazza del Plebiscito and you come to the new Museo della Città (June–Sept Sat & Sun 7–11pm; rest of year Thurs–Sat 10am–1pm, plus 5–8pm Sat & Sun; €2.60), with models, paintings, sculptures and original documents showing key events in Ancona from 2000BC to 2000AD. Backtracking to Piazza della Repubblica, take a left into Corso Mazzini, where there's a long sixteenth-century fountain with thirteen spouting heads, all with great expressions, attributed to Pellegrino Tibaldi.

Equally appealing is the Romanesque church of Santa Maria della Piazza, its facade a fantasia of blind loggias and its portal carved with chunky figures and elegant birds. Behind the church, on Via Pizzecolli, is the town's Pinacoteca Comunale (Mon 9am–1pm, Tues–Fri 9am–7pm, Sat 8.30am–6.30pm, Sun 3–7pm; €4). The highlight here is Titian's Apparition of the Virgin, a sombre yet impassioned work, with the Virgin appearing to a rotund and fluffy-bearded bishop in a stormy sunset sky. There's also a glorious Sacra Conversazione by Lotto, a view of sixteenth-century Ancona by Andrea Lilli, and an exquisite yet chilling Madonna and Child by Carlo Crivelli, with a mean-looking Mary pinching the toe of a rather pained Christ, incongruously flanked by bunches of apples and a marrow.

Beyond the gallery is the church of San Francesco delle Scale, named for the steps leading up to it. Titian's Apparition was painted for this church, but today its most remarkable work is an almost orgasmic Assumption by Lotto. Further up the hill, the Museo Archeologico is not a bad place to spend an hour (Tues–Sun 8.30am–7.30pm; €4), its wacky moulded ceilings vaulting over a collection of finds ranging from red- and black-figure Greek craters to a stunning Celtic gold crown.

Passing the remains of the Roman amphitheatre, now capped with graffitied earthquake-shattered buildings, you climb up to the pink-and-white Duomo (or San Ciriaco). Though mostly built in a restrained Romanesque style, there's an outburst of Gothic exuberance in the doorway's cluster of slender columns, some plain, others twisted and carved. The simple and calm interior is built on a Greek-cross plan, enlivened by a cupola that from below resembles an elongated umbrella. The most memorable feature, however, is a screen along the edge of the raised right transept, one section of which is carved with eagles, fantastic birds and storks entwined in a tree, the other with saints.

Information by Rough Guides

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