New Year's Eve Ascoli Piceno

For a quiet New Year in the Marche region, the most suitable city is without a doubt Ascoli Piceno!
"The city of the Travertine", so called because entirely built with this material, boasts a very particular landscape: in fact, it is located a few kilometres away from the Adriatic sea, in a beautiful hilly area in the shade of the Sibillini and the Laga mountains.
Ascoli Piceno was founded by the Piceni but very decisive were the relations with the Romans: these last ones had trade relations with the Piceni that occurred primarily along the Via Salaria, and they tried to exploit Ascoli as a military city, thanks to its strategic position.
This led to a series of conflicts known as the Social War.
The Ascoli history is still long: during the Middle Age it knew the domination of the Longobards and then of the Francs of Charlemagne, but without a doubt, the most flourishing and richest period was the one of the Renaissance, especially from the cultural and artistic point of view.
As already said, the Ascoli Piceno particularity is that the city was built entirely in Travertine.

But let's begin our visit of the city from the Popolo Square, in Renaissance style.
Here we can admire several historical buildings, such as the Saint Francesco church, in Gothic style, or the Capitani del Popolo (captains of the people) Palace, an historical residence of the Captain of the People, of the Podestà, of the Anziani and the Pontifical Governors.
The Palace, built in 1520, was destroyed by fire in 1535, and was completely restructured, becoming an impressive and compact building that today we can admire, together with its tower/ tower bell.
Other interesting buildings are the St. Emidio cathedral, which is in the Arringo square, where we can also visit the Municipal Palace, inside which the Art Gallery is hosted.
In the same square we find the Baptistery, dating back to the XIIIrd century, the Episcopio Palace and the Roverella Palace.
Let us not forget, then, that Ascoli Piceno is also called the city of a hundred towers: among the most interesting conserved until today we cannot mention the Ercolani tower, dating back to the XIIth century.