Marche · Ascoli Piceno
Montefiore dell'Aso
A hilltop borgo between the Aso and Menocchia valleys, holding six surviving panels of Carlo Crivelli's 1472 polyptych.
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 1 h from Ancona
- Population
- 1,986
Known for
CRIVELLI
Six surviving panels of Carlo Crivelli's 1472 polyptych for the Church of Saint Francis, dismembered in the nineteenth century and reassembled in the town's museum.
DE CAROLIS
Adolfo De Carolis, symbolist painter and woodcut master born in Montefiore, with five hundred works held in the Polo Museale di San Francesco.
TWO VALLEYS
Hilltop position at 412 meters on the ridge that divides the Aso and Menocchia valleys, with views east to the Adriatic and west to the Sibillini.
When to visit
Best · Apr–Oct
- J9°
- F11°
- M12°
- A14°
- M19°
- J24°
- J27°
- A28°
- S23°
- O19°
- N14°
- D10°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime averages, 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
The festa: Santa Lucia, 13 December
Why come
The ridge lies twenty-five kilometers from Ascoli Piceno and eleven from the Adriatic, the divide between the Aso and Menocchia valleys giving the town its double outlook, sea one way, the Sibillini the other. The territory was settled in the Neolithic and developed under the Piceni, with Roman necropolises dated to the first and second centuries BC. Two earlier castles, Montefiore and Aspramonte, stood separately before merging in 1178 into a single walled town that grew into a free commune, the union of two settlements still legible in the shape of the centro storico on its ridge.
The former Franciscan convent, built between 1247 and 1303, now gathers the town's separate histories under one roof: the recovered polyptych panels, the De Carolis paintings, the record of peasant life. A hill town shaped by the fusion of two older ones, its museum performs the same act of reassembly on a smaller scale, holding together what was once scattered or separate.
The Sunday letter
Montefiore dell'Aso is on our list. Its letter is still to come.
We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter every Sunday: the photo, the food, the festa. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Montefiore dell'Aso comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Pietrasanta.
How to get there
From Ancona / Pescara (AOI), about 1h 9m by car.
Rimini (RMI) is about 2h 12m away.
By car from the centre of Ancona 1 hour or Pescara 1h 17m.
Coming by train into Pescara Centrale? Montefiore dell'Aso is about 1h 15m away by road.
What to see
Polo Museale di San Francesco
Former Franciscan convent of 1247-1303, now a museum complex with the Crivelli room, the De Carolis museum and the Museum of Peasant Civilization.
Polittico di Carlo Crivelli
The panels sit reassembled in the museum's dedicated room, the surviving remnant of a work broken apart and scattered on the antique market before recovery.
Museo Adolfo De Carolis
Around five hundred works by the Montefiore-born symbolist artist, with sixty-nine oil sketches for the Salone dei Quattromila frescoes in Bologna's Palazzo del Podestà.
Chiesa di San Francesco
Romanesque-gothic conventual church holding the sepulchres of Cardinal Gentile Partino, who died 1310, and the painter Adolfo De Carolis, with apse frescoes by the Master of Offida.
Centro storico
Walled medieval village on the ridge between the Aso and Menocchia valleys, formed in 1178 from the union of the earlier castles of Montefiore and Aspramonte.
The slow-trip planner
Building a trip? Find where Montefiore dell'Aso fits in a slow Italy circuit.
Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.
Through the year
What happens here
Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.
Maialata in Piazzafood festival
usually held in August. Viaggi e Sagre
Montefiore Polenta Festivalfood festival
usually held across August and September. sagritaly.com
Pig-eating in the squarefood festival
usually held in August. sagritaly.com
Sagra degli gnocchi della nonna e Castratofood festival
usually held in August. lemarche.it
Sagra della Fruttafood festival
usually held in August. lemarche.it
Living here
- Population 1,986
- In-betweeni
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Nearest airport Ancona / Pescara, 1 h 9 min drive
- Regional capital Ancona, 1 h 4 min drive
Common questions
- What is Montefiore dell'Aso known for?
- Montefiore dell'Aso is a hilltop borgo at 412 meters between the Aso and Menocchia valleys, holding six surviving panels of Carlo Crivelli's 1472 polyptych.
- Where is Montefiore dell'Aso?
- Montefiore dell'Aso is a comune in the province of Ascoli Piceno, in Marche.
- What is the nearest airport to Montefiore dell'Aso?
- Ancona / Pescara (AOI), about 1h 9m by car.
- How long is the drive from Ancona to Montefiore dell'Aso?
- About 1 hour by car.
- When is the best time to visit Montefiore dell'Aso?
- Best in Apr–Oct. August is the warmest month, averaging 28 degrees, and March the wettest, with about 10 rain days.
- Is there a sagra or a festival in Montefiore dell'Aso?
- Yes. Maialata in Piazza, Montefiore Polenta Festival and Pig-eating in the square, and 2 more we hold a source for. August is when the first of them falls.
- Which other towns are like Montefiore dell'Aso?
- Genga, Servigliano and Monte Castello di Vibio.
- How many people live in Montefiore dell'Aso?
- 1,986 at the 2023 count.
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources
Recognised as
The numbers
- Elevation: 412 m
- Population: 1,986
- Surface area: 28.21 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
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