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ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL EVENTS |
  
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| From Carpegna and Montefeltro to Fabriano, the valley of the river Esino, Macerata and Ascoli, country and town vie with one another in producing artistic and cultural events.Once there were almost 100 theatres, now many of them are in need of restoration while others are splendid and famous, rich with light, gilt and red velvet like the Teatro Pergolesi at Jesi, some are smaller but just as beautiful, like the theatre at Sarnano. Here we are very far from the coast and the beach and we can spend days packed with unfogettable events, making our own discoveries without anyone else's help. Every town has an altar-piece, every village a museum and a picture gallery, something that recalls history. A dominant feature is the opera season at the Arena Sferisterio at Macerata, perhaps the best-known building in the town, erected for playing ballgames in the nineteenth century. Among the historical pageants of which the people of the Marches are so proud, the foremost is the Quintana, held at Ascoli, a tournament in Mediaeval costume in which about 1,500 people take part in the roles of knights, falconers, flag-wavers, squires and ladies. The contest is between the various districts of the town. Other famous events are the "Palio" and the "Race of the Sword" at Camerino, the "Feast of the Duke" at Urbino, "the Boar Hunt" with Renaissance dinner at Mondavio, the "De scent of Queen Joan of Anjou" at Arquata del Tronto, another "Palio" at San Ginesio, the Bastrengo Fair at Monte Cerignone (in honour of the favourite sweet of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, who used to savour it in his residence at Rocca di Monte Cerignone), the "Joust of the Castles" at Caldarola, the "Mediaeval Feasts" at Offagna. More pageants in magnificent costumes are held at Offida and Sant'Elpidio and throughout the province of Ascoli. This is what remains of a rural culture with a familiar and almost homespun character, but always with a lofty and rather aristocratic tone. Old families, all of them noble and always dignified, have left beautiful traces and memories: from the farmhouses, now mostly abandoned, to the manor houses such as the sixteenth-century villa "Bonaccorsi" with its Italian garden at Porto Potenza Picena, and the stately palaces of the important families, such as Palazzo Ferri and Palazzo Ciccolini at Macerata.
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