Starting the New Year in the Marche

On New Year's Day we drove almost four hours northeast of Rome to the town of Urbino in the Marche region. The Tom-Tom GPS guided us along the Via Flaminia, the route chosen in 220 BC by the Roman politician and consul Flaminius to be one of the most important roadways of ancient Rome, connecting the capital to the Adriatic Sea.

It was dark when we arrived in Urbino, after driving through rain and fog in the mountains. We parked our car outside the old city and walked through the Porta Lavagine up to Via Raffaello.

This building housed our bed and breakfast and was just down the street from the birthplace of Raffaello.

This is the roof of the Church of San Francisco,

outside our B&B window.

Here are men hanging out in Piazza della Repubblica on Sunday Morning.

A statue of a bishop stands guard outside the Duomo.

The Ducal Palace of Federico di Montefalcro, designed by Luciano Laurana, holds many treasures. One of the rooms is a studiolo, a small room for study and contemplation with walls of trompe-l'oeil wooden inlays, depicting shelves, benches and half-opened cabinets. The palace also houses the National Gallery of the Marche with an amazing collection of Renaissance art.
San Crescentino is the patron of Urbino. (I confused him with St. George when I first saw this statue. They are both legendary slayers of dragons.) Crescentino was a Roman soldier who converted to Christianity, and was beheaded during the persecution of Diocletian in 303 AD.

La Befana in Urbania

We took a small drive from Urbino and go to the medieval town of Urbania for dinner while we were in the Marche region. When we arrived we discovered the national Befana Festival.
We purchased a small bag of chestnuts that had been "roasting on an open fire," and began exploring the town. We strolled between buildings that had large stockings hung to celebrate la Befana.

We saw images of Befana sitting on balconies

and flying over streets.

Adults of all ages, female and male,

were walking the streets dressed as la Befana.

Children were enjoying street performers, ceramic workshops

and a marketplace just for chocolate.

There was actually a chocolate kebab stand!

At the end of the street of chocolate vendors there was a place to get carbone, the coal that la Befana will leave for naughty boys and girls.
The house of la Befana was a special attraction for kids. They could go inside and give her a hug or sit down and listen to a story. She had a mail box for the letters that are sent to her from children all over Italy.

Urbania has also been an important center of handmade Italian ceramics since the 15th century and there are still several ceramics workshops. We purchased a gift for a friend from the workshop of Monica Alvoni.