Quote:
Originally Posted by mobertol
Macerata is a in a lovely area great to explore in a camer van -off the beaten track for most Brits who stick to Tuscany/Umbria. Lovely little hilltop villages and the area is famous for it's leather goods. Was there for a holiday about 8 years ago. The food is good down there too -especially the Olive all'Ascolano which are large green olives stuffed with meat, breadcrumbed and deep fried -one to try -delicious! 
The coast isn't as nice though as it's on the Adriatic, apart from a particular area know as the Riviera del Conero which is a Marine national park and very pretty.
Love the building site ntice -if it had been a weekday Sue, I'm sure you'd have seen them all abiding by the rules   |
ha ha Dianne we stayed on two campsites on the Riviera del Conera, have lots of pics from there! Our goal in that area was a little town called Castelfidardo whose main industry is making accordions and has a squeezebox museum so Richard as keen to see that and visit some makers as his retirement dream is to make squeezeboxes himself. Well every trip has to have a goal doesn't it?
We also visited Loreto and happened to land there on the birthday of the Virgin so there was a lot happening in the town - services, a great market etc - all very interesting. And had some good food in the area - fish on the coast of course.
We travelled down the coast from Ravenna as I'd been wanting to see the mosaics in the churches there for 40 years - and they certainly didn't disappoint (got pics of them too!). We also visited San Marino. And our way home was via Umbria and Tuscany stopping off in Siena and Florence. We wanted to go to San Gimignano to see the towers but couldn't park our camper van closer than about two miles so only saw the skyline from a distance. Same in Assisi so we didn't bother. We have bikes on the back now though - but not sure about those hills!
We did visit a lovely unspoilt Renaissace town whse name escapes me for the minute, will look it up, but everything in miniature, church and palace built by one of the Popes. We managed to park our van really close - and there were some friendly cats too! Stayed in Fiesole not Florence and got the bus there which was better than trying to park! and had a wonderful day including going right up to the top of the Duomo dome. Siena we saw in the evening and it was magical being in the Campo central square (not square but shell shaped!) as the light changed from day to dusk to dark., and seeing the stripy cathedral all lit up. Oh and went to Pisa of course.
So all in all a pretty comprehensive holiday - just got to do the bottom half of the boot now!