Route · April 30 - May 4 2026
From the Marche to the Apennines
from the harbour of Fano to the court of Urbino, down into the caves, and back to the sea at Ancona
The itinerary
For each day you find on one side what we saw and did, on the other where we slept.
Five days in a loop that starts at the sea, goes into the Apennines and comes back to the sea on the other side. It begins on the coast, with Pesaro and Fano half an hour apart and the via Flaminia ending under a Roman arch. Then up to Urbino, a court city on two hills that holds a palace which is a city in itself. From there down into Umbria, to Gubbio, where the main square is built over thin air on a row of great arches. On the fourth day you go underground, into the Frasassi caves, which is the way to change register when the towns start to look alike, and you sleep at Fabriano, the town that invented paper. On the fifth you come out at the sea again, at Ancona. Two hundred and twenty five kilometres in all, and no leg reaches an hour's drive. The dates fall on the first of May long weekend, which is how you get five full days by taking only one off work, and you pay for it in queues and in car parks.
Pesaro and Fano
April 30 · Thursdaya day of coast and little driving: Pesaro and Fano are twelve kilometres and nineteen minutes apart. Pesaro in the morning, with the seafront and Pomodoro's Sphere; Fano in the afternoon, which is half a day and needs taking the right way round. You arrive in Fano for the Arch of Augustus and you stop for the pier: the walk out to the trabucchi wants low light, so it is kept for last, and you sleep there. The area on viale Kennedy is free and sits six hundred metres from the centre.
Overnight stop
Urbino
May 1 · Fridayfrom Fano you climb inland, 47 kilometres and three quarters of an hour. The day is the Palazzo Ducale, open Tuesday to Sunday 8:30 to 19:15 with the ticket office closing at 18:15, and the first of May is not one of its closing days: the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche closes only on 25 December and 1 January. Full price 12 euros, reduced 2. Inside is Piero della Francesca's Flagellation. The rest of Urbino sits within four hundred metres, but all of it uphill. It is a national holiday and the first day of the long weekend, though, so the town is full and parking is the hard part of the day. You sleep at the municipal area on via Pablo Neruda, free and with a service point, two kilometres below the centre: from there you go up by bus or on foot in twenty to twenty five minutes of climbing.
During the day
Overnight stop
Gubbio
May 2 · Saturday56 kilometres and just under an hour, the longest leg of the trip. You cross into Umbria. On a Saturday the Palazzo dei Consoli stays open straight through, 10:00 to 18:00, because the museum only splits its hours on weekdays: inside are the Iguvine Tablets. The cable car up to Sant'Ubaldo closes on Wednesdays, and on Saturday it runs. The Roman theatre does not: from 2 March to 10 May 2026 it is closed for restoration work, and what stays open is the Antiquarium and the Guastuglia excavations, with the reduced ticket at 2 euros. It is the one thing this date takes away. You sleep at the municipal P4 on via del Bottagnone, ten euros for twenty four hours including water and waste: from there the centre is ten or fifteen minutes on foot, and the road passes right beside the Roman theatre.
During the day
Overnight stop
Fabriano and the Frasassi caves
May 3 · Sundayback into the Marche, 38 kilometres and forty minutes to Fabriano, which is the base for the day: from there the caves are thirteen kilometres and a quarter of an hour, and you go and come back without moving camp. The tourist route lasts 75 minutes over a kilometre and a half of walkway, and the individual visit cannot be booked by phone: you buy online or at the ticket office on the day. On a Sunday, and on the first of May weekend at that, buying online is not a fussy detail: the time slots fill up. Inside it is fourteen degrees, so the fleece is needed even in May. The afternoon is left for Fabriano: piazza del Comune is triangular, and the Paper and Watermark Museum, open Tuesday to Sunday 9:30 to 13:30 and 15:00 to 18:00, shows the master papermakers making a sheet by hand. You sleep at the free municipal area, six hundred metres from the square.
During the day
Overnight stop
Ancona
May 4 · Mondaythe last leg, 76 kilometres and a little over an hour, and you are back on the Adriatic. Ancona is the only harbour on this coast where you see both sunrise and sunset over the sea, and it is the way to close a loop that began sixty kilometres further north. 4 May is the feast of San Ciriaco, the patron saint: solemn mass in the cathedral, a procession through the old town and the colle Guasco full of families. The closing day falls on the town's own festival.