Most people know Ancona in passing: you arrive, you park near the harbour, you board the ferry for Croatia or Greece. Yet it is the only Italian city where you can watch both the sunrise and the sunset over the sea, and the place to notice it from is the Guasco hill, where the cathedral of San Ciriaco stands. From up there the city drops towards the port through lanes, squares and murals. Capital of the Marche, it is reached from the A14, exits Ancona Nord or Ancona Sud, or along the SS16 Adriatica.
Sleeping
Stops and overnight stays
Two free car parks that complement each other: one a few steps from the bus that reaches the centre in ten minutes, the other larger and better equipped out towards the Aspio, with a service point and half an hour on public transport into town.
Parcheggio Comunale Via Bruno Leoni
Via Bruno Leoni, Ancona, quartiere Tavernelle
level, clean motorhome bays, lit at night, in a quiet wooded area next to the monumental cemetery: better to know beforehand, so as not to cause any disturbance. There is no filling or emptying point, but there is a drinking fountain and a waste collection point. The bus stop is a few steps from the entrance and line 46 reaches the centre in about ten minutes; a supermarket is five minutes away on foot. Users report a night watch.
Via Franco Scataglini, Ancona, zona commerciale Baraccola
very handy, and we recommend it. A wide, lit car park, level bays and long stalls that take caravans too, with a service point for filling and for emptying grey and black tanks. It is free, but there is no electricity. It sits in the side car park of the Conero shopping centre, where there are public toilets, a supermarket, an electronics shop and a Leroy Merlin. The centre of Ancona is half an hour away on public transport, so it is not only for services, for the big shop and for the night before boarding: you can also leave the motorhome here and go and see the city. At night you hear the railway line nearby.
From the Via Bruno Leoni car park line 46 reaches Piazza Cavour in about ten minutes, and the stop is opposite the entrance
From the Aspio area the city centre is about half an hour away on public transport
Lines 1 and 4 link the area to the railway station, from where you carry on to the port and the seafront
Tickets at tobacconists or from the app, about 1.30 euros a ride
In the centre you walk: much of it is pedestrian or restricted, you climb the Guasco hill for the cathedral and drop to the port for the Arch of Trajan and the Mole. From Piazza Cavour to the cathedral is about twenty minutes uphill
From the station there is also shuttle no. 11, which runs towards the cathedral
The cycle lanes are on the flat near the seafront; the hilly centre is hard work on a bike
With a motorhome you do not go near the old town: the streets of the Capodimonte quarter and the Guasco hill are narrow, steeply pitched and often dead ends
Seeing
Sights
Five stops, all walkable from the centre: the first two mark the two ends of the city, the cathedral on top of the hill and the Roman arch down on the quay. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
1
Duomo di San Ciriaco
Church · free entry · 43.62519, 13.51008
Piazza del Senato, 60121 Ancona
a Romanesque Byzantine cathedral on the top of the Guasco hill, built between the eleventh and the fourteenth century and dedicated to the martyr who protects the city. A facade of white and pink stone, a doorway under a porch carried by stone lions, and in the crypt the relics of the saint; on a side altar the Madonna who, tradition says, made Napoleon turn pale. The terrace in front looks over both sides of the headland and is one of the finest viewpoints on the Adriatic coast, almost always quiet even in high season.
Opening hours in winter every day 8:00-12:00 and 15:00-18:00; in summer Monday to Friday 8:00-12:00 and 13:00-19:00, Saturday and Sunday 8:00-19:00
the Arch of Trajan was raised in 115 AD for the emperor who enlarged the harbour: white marble, four Corinthian columns, among the best preserved Roman monuments of the Adriatic. Beside it stands the Arco Clementino, Vanvitelli's eighteenth century answer. A little further on, on an artificial island, the Mole Vanvitelliana: a pentagonal building born as a lazaretto for the quarantine of those landing from the Levant, later a prison, which Casanova also wrote about, and today a venue for exhibitions and events. The address of the arch is Banchina Giovanni da Chio, 60121 Ancona; the Mole stands at the Molo Santa Maria and opens according to its programme, while the outside can always be seen from the seafront.
to the people of Ancona it is "piazza del Papa", after the statue of Clement XII at the top of the steps. On the south side the church of San Domenico, with an altarpiece painted by Titian in his last years; opposite it the Museo della Città, which keeps a seventeenth century painting in which an artist who had never been to Ancona portrayed its people dressed as Turks: the city was then a hinge between West and East. Address: Piazza del Plebiscito, 60121 Ancona. The opening times of the Museo della Città change and are checked on the city council's site.
a large urban park on the old walls, among sixteenth century bastions, rusting cannon and pine woods. Inside are the Jewish cemetery, one of the largest in Europe, the English cemetery kept in the bastion of San Paolo, the eighteenth century Forte Cardeto and the old lighthouse, rebuilt after the two wars, from which the port and the Adriatic are visible. The signage inside is poor: photograph the map at the entrance before setting off. Open during daylight hours. You get there on line 6 as far as Piazza Cavour and then a kilometre on foot, or on line 42 from Corso Carlo Alberto.
a quarter regenerated by a street art project, five minutes on foot from Corso Giuseppe Mazzini. The heart of the route is the underpass between Via Cialdini and Via Astagno, painted by Italian and foreign artists with scarecrows, flying houses, imaginary trains and figures from children's stories. Among the works is the one by Percy Bertolini, from Bologna, dedicated to the shepherd boy Attilio, a child who really lived and who at seven took the sheep to pasture on the mountains of the Conero, portrayed in black and white with a bundle of firewood on his shoulder.
the patron saint is celebrated with solemn mass in the cathedral and a procession through the streets of the old town: full streets, bars open late and the Guasco hill busy with families. The arrangements for the current year are checked on the site of the city council.
This year's dates are not out yet
Stagione del Teatro delle Muse
October to May
drama, opera and concerts in the neoclassical theatre facing the port, at Via della Loggia 4. It falls in low season, which for a motorhome is the best time. Programme, prices and availability on the theatre's site.
Remember
Useful tips
The best seasons are April to May and September to October: mild weather, few visitors, free parking and low prices. In summer come the ferry crowds and high prices, in winter the city is quiet but some places close
The old town is largely a restricted traffic zone with active cameras: do not take the motorhome near the cathedral quarter or the lanes, use the outer car parks and public transport
Fill and empty at the Aspio area before leaving Ancona: it is free, in working order and handy for the motorway
With an extra day there is the Riviera del Conero, twenty minutes south, with Portonovo, Sirolo and Numana. The roads of the Conero park are narrow and winding, unsuited to long vehicles: better to leave the motorhome on the flat and go down to the beaches with the summer shuttles
The Mercato delle Erbe, in Via della Loggia, is one of the finest covered markets in the Marche, with fish, local vegetables, cheese and cured meats. Open in the morning, Monday to Saturday
Ancona · part two
and then?
What to do, what to taste, and where to go tomorrow.
Experiences from here
What we did starting from here, ordered by driving time.
Never call it fish soup: Ancona's brudetu takes exactly thirteen kinds of fish, like the thirteen spouts of the Fontana del Calamo, and it is finished with vinegar, never with white wine.
about 1.5 kg of mixed fish in thirteen kinds: cuttlefish, squid, musky octopus, sole, hake, monkfish, smooth-hound, red mullet, scorpionfish, mantis shrimp, king prawns, mussels, clams, to be adapted to what the catch offers
1 onion, finely sliced
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
a generous glass of extra virgin olive oil
half a glass of white wine vinegar
250 g of tomato passata
2 or 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper
lightly salted water
stale country bread, sliced and toasted
Method
clean and wash all the fish: take the bone, the ink sac and the beak out of the cuttlefish and cut them into pieces, cut the larger fish into steaks, then lay everything on a wide plate and salt lightly
in a large earthenware pot, or a pan with a very thick base, pour the oil and soften the onion and the garlic over a medium heat until golden
raise the flame, pour in the vinegar and let it evaporate completely: this is the step that flavours the base and keeps the fish whole during cooking
add the parsley, the passata and the paste dissolved in a little salted water, keep the sauce fairly loose and cook over a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes
add the cuttlefish and squid, which need longer, cover and carry on gently for 15 to 20 minutes, until the sauce begins to reduce
move the cuttlefish to the edge of the pot and add the rest in order of cooking time: first mantis shrimp, langoustines and large fish such as monkfish and smooth-hound, then the medium ones such as hake, red mullet and scorpionfish, last the sole and the delicate fish. Cover and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes on the lowest heat
turn off the heat and let it rest covered for at least 10 minutes: the sauce should stay thick and dark red
lay the slices of toasted bread in the bottom of the bowls, pour the boiling brodetto over them and scatter with fresh parsley. A still Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, cool from the cellar, goes with it
the port of Ancona at dusk seen from above, with the quays lit and the coast in the distancethe front of the cathedral of San Ciriaco, with the porch on its stone lions and the stepsthe Arch of Trajan in white marble above the brick quay, with the hill behindthe statue of Clement XII seen from behind and the piazza del Papa lit up, with the tables of the barsthe bronze masks and the stone basins of the Fontana del Calamoa lane in the centre with lights strung between the houses and the painted figure of a woman walking her dog
