Marche · Macerata
Treia
A Macerata hill town, the Roman municipium Trea, renamed by Pope Pius VI in 1790 after centuries as Montecchio.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Treia is on our list
It holds Borghi più belli d'Italia and Città della Terra Cruda.
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Visiting
- Best time
- Apr–Oct
- By car
- 59 min from Ancona
- Population
- 9,080
- J11°
- F13°
- M14°
- A17°
- M23°
- J29°
- J32°
- A31°
- S26°
- O21°
- N15°
- D12°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
Treia stands in the hills between the Potenza and Chienti valleys, thirty-five kilometers from Ancona. The Roman town of Trea lay on the plateau below, a municipium founded shortly after 49 BC that flourished between Augustus and Antoninus Pius. Around the year 1000 the population moved up to the more defensible hilltop of Montecchio, and the older site emptied.
The new town stayed under the name Montecchio until 1790, when Pope Pius VI raised it to the rank of città and restored its Roman name. The Piazza della Repubblica, on the highest point of the ridge, is closed at one end by the Cattedrale della Santissima Annunziata and at the other by Giuseppe Valadier's small Accademia Georgica, the eighteenth-century home of an agronomic academy founded in the fifteenth as the Accademia dei Sollevati. The Disfida del Bracciale, an Ottocento street-game in which four contrade compete, has filled the centro storico every first Sunday of August since 1978.
How to get there
From Ancona (AOI), about 56 min by car.
Rimini (RMI) is about 2 h 3 min away.
By car from the center of Ancona 59 min or Perugia 1 h 42 min.
Every town within reach of Ancona airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Piazza della Repubblica
Belvedere piazza on the highest point of the ridge, closed by the Cattedrale della Santissima Annunziata at one end and the Accademia Georgica at the other.
Accademia Georgica
Eighteenth-century Giuseppe Valadier building housing an academy founded in the 1400s, with 1,196 parchments of the municipal archive and over 15,000 volumes.
Santuario del Santissimo Crocifisso
Cesare Bazzani sanctuary completed in the early twentieth century on the site of an older parish church, holding a sixteenth-century Umbrian fresco and a thirteenth-century crucifix.
Chiesa di San Filippo Neri
Built 1766-1773 to designs by Carlo Augustoni, holding a crucifix possibly dating from the thirteenth century.
Sito archeologico di Trea
Roman municipium on the plateau below the modern town, with wall traces, funerary monuments and epigraphic finds from the first and second centuries AD.
From the guides
Where to eat
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
Il Casolare dei SegretiRistorante
A Michelin Bib Gourmand, at Il Casolare dei Segreti.
Before you sit down: how to order at a restaurant, how to spot a tourist trap, what aperitivo is and how the Italian bar works.
Living here
Could you live here?
Treia meets our one rule for a small town.
- 9,080 people, inside our sweet spot of 5,000 to 20,000: a real town, still one community.
- Macerata, a city of 40,585, is 26 min by car. Closer than our 30 to 60 minutes: handy for everything, so check the town still keeps a life of its own.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
- Population 9,080, down 4.4% since 2015
- Nearest city Macerata, 26 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Macerata, 11 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €800 to €1,200 per m² to buy, €2.60 to €3.90 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Commuter belt
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 67% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 2, medium hazard
- Ancona airport (AOI), 56 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Ancona, 59 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
10% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Morocco and Ukraine, against 9% across Italy. 27 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. There are 239 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 31% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Macerata province ranks 26th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Macerata, 11 km as the crow flies. The nearest major one is in Ancona, 32 km away. The nearest children's emergency room is in Ancona, 32 km away. The nearest IB school is International School of Rimini, 102 km as the crow flies. The nearest school listed as international is Marche International School, 31 km away.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 1.06% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. The town adds 0.8% to your income tax. 7% pensioner tax: this town qualifies, for someone with a foreign pension who has lived abroad for five years: 7% on foreign income, for ten years.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Marche spends about €2,480 a month, €620 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €643 a year for water, on the Marche average. In Macerata, the provincial capital, in September 2026, a man's haircut €24.41.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone D, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from November 1 to April 15, up to 12 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. 1% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate medium for floods. Under 1% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
Known for
DISFIDA DEL BRACCIALE
Ottocento street-game between four contrade revived in 1978, held the first Sunday of August across the centro storico.
ACCADEMIA GEORGICA
Giuseppe Valadier building on Piazza della Repubblica, home to an agronomic academy founded in the 1400s as the Accademia dei Sollevati.
ROMAN TREA
Pope Pius VI restored the Roman name in 1790 after a thousand years of the town being known as Montecchio.
Common questions
- What is Treia known for?
- Treia is a Macerata hill town at 342 meters, the Roman municipium Trea, renamed by Pope Pius VI in 1790 after centuries as Montecchio.
- Where is Treia?
- Treia is a comune in the province of Macerata, in Marche.
- What is the nearest airport to Treia?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Ancona (AOI), about 56 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Ancona to Treia?
- About 59 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Treia?
- Best in Apr–Oct. July is the warmest month, averaging 32 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 13 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Treia?
- Morrovalle, Montecosaro and Offida.
- How many people live in Treia?
- 9,080 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Treia a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Treia is a small town that meets our one rule. The nearest city, Macerata, is 26 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Macerata, 11 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 67% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
- Borghi più belli d'Italia
- Città della Terra Cruda
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 342 m
- Population: 9,080
- Surface area: 93.54 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.
The ranked lists
Lists Treia appears in
- The 6 best hidden hill towns with a serious restaurant in MarcheMarchehill townserious restauranthidden6 towns · smallest 4,162 residents
- The best towns that eat well in the province of MacerataMacerata provinceeats well6 towns · smallest 7,394 residents
- The 8 prettiest villages that eat well in MarcheMarcheeats wellprettiest villages8 towns · smallest 3,625 residents
- The prettiest villages in the province of MacerataMacerata provinceprettiest villages9 towns · smallest 926 residents
- The 10 best hidden towns with a serious restaurant in MarcheMarcheserious restauranthidden10 towns · smallest 3,762 residents
- The 10 best hill towns that eat well within 90 minutes of AnconaNear Anconahill townwithin 90 mineats well10 towns · smallest 1,385 residents · closest 42 min away
Similar
Towns like Treia
What all six share with Treia: inland, away from the coast · between 3,000 and 10,000 people · hill towns
The letter
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