Le Marche
A strip of gentle hills nestled between the Adriatic Sea and the Apennines. This is essentially the Marche region. It is the contemporary presence of a closed and shallow sea like the Adriatic and that of nearby rugged mountains (think of Monte Catria, Monte Cucco and the Sibillini chain) that mark the characteristics of the Marche wines in a very profound way.
"If I think of the Marche, I think of landscapes like these, with hills and mountains that stand out rigorously, sharp. If I think of the countryside I think of this beauty, these colors, the solid and quiet certainty that comes from the earth, immobile, all around me ...
... Walking is a spectacle, especially on those clear days that enhance the profiles of the hills, amplifying the spaces and drawing the contours of an agricultural environment where the landscape of the Marche sharecropping is still tangible: the small plots, the alternation of diverse crops, the residual wooded areas, the countless peasant houses. The classic multifunctional farm typical of sharecropping, often almost entirely self-sufficient, has in spite of everything preserved an enviable biodiversity in these valleys, where arable crops, vegetables, vineyards and olive groves were cultivated simultaneously, where in the stables a couple of native Marche farm animals warmed the rooms and just a few pigs guaranteed the annual supply of fats and meat at a low price."
"If I think of the Marche, I think of landscapes like these, with hills and mountains that stand out rigorously, sharp. If I think of the countryside I think of this beauty, these colors, the solid and quiet certainty that comes from the earth, immobile, all around me ...
... Walking is a spectacle, especially on those clear days that enhance the profiles of the hills, amplifying the spaces and drawing the contours of an agricultural environment where the landscape of the Marche sharecropping is still tangible: the small plots, the alternation of diverse crops, the residual wooded areas, the countless peasant houses. The classic multifunctional farm typical of sharecropping, often almost entirely self-sufficient, has in spite of everything preserved an enviable biodiversity in these valleys, where arable crops, vegetables, vineyards and olive groves were cultivated simultaneously, where in the stables a couple of native Marche farm animals warmed the rooms and just a few pigs guaranteed the annual supply of fats and meat at a low price."
I Castelli di Jesi
In the hinterland of Ancona, halfway between the Adriatic Sea and the Apennines, there is a succession of medieval and Renaissance villages with an unchanged appearance, linked together by gentle hills covered by vineyards of Verdicchio.
These are not castles in the typical sense (large fortified buildings that belonged to a single family), but castle towns, surrounded and closed by high walls, within which the inhabitants and peasants of the surrounding countryside took refuge during pirate raids.
Located in a horseshoe shape around the city of Jesi, these castles have always been the selected homeland of a high quality agriculture that had – and still has today – as its principal products, durum wheat, extra virgin olive oil and wine.
These are not castles in the typical sense (large fortified buildings that belonged to a single family), but castle towns, surrounded and closed by high walls, within which the inhabitants and peasants of the surrounding countryside took refuge during pirate raids.
Located in a horseshoe shape around the city of Jesi, these castles have always been the selected homeland of a high quality agriculture that had – and still has today – as its principal products, durum wheat, extra virgin olive oil and wine.