Macerata Feltria

Macerata Feltria sits in the Montefeltro, the borderland shared by the Marche, Emilia-Romagna and the Republic of San Marino, on the Pesaro side of that territory. The name Pitinum Pisaurense points to its origin as a stop on the Roman road between Pisaurum, now Pesaro, and the upper Tiber, which explains why the excavated forum and baths sit at the edge of today's centro rather than beneath it: the Roman town and the modern one occupy adjoining ground, not the same footprint. After the 8th century the site was rebuilt as a feud under the Montefeltro family, the line that produced Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, whose profile in Piero della Francesca's portrait is the standard image of the Renaissance prince.

That period left the fortifications in town and the outlying Castello di Pietrarubbia 5 km north, and it was in this same span that the parish church was raised over an earlier basilica, so the building itself is a second layer built on a first. The 19th century added a third: the Roman thermal springs were put back into use, leading to the 1898 spa building, still running on the same sulphurous water. The Montefeltro setting also places the town among better-known neighbours: San Leo 15 km north, Urbino 30 km south, San Marino 25 km east.

Food follows the same regional line, passatelli in brodo, tagliatelle al ragù di lepre, crescia sfogliata, Bianchello del Metauro and Montefeltro Pecorino, with the Festa del Patrono San Cassiano on 13 August as the year's fixed point. Three eras, Roman, Montefeltro and the modern spa town, sit on the same small plot of ground, each one building over rather than replacing the last.