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Urbino district
guide
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Urbino main information page)
Urbino,
in the Marche region, is a World Heritage site for its great
cultural history during the Renaissance.
It is located on two hills at approximately 900 feet elevation
between the Metauro and Foglia River valleys and situated due
east of Florence, slightly south of San Marino, some thirty
miles inland from the city of Pesaro and the Adriatic Sea. It is
only three hours from Florence, Venice, and Bologna; Rome is
five hours away; the beach at Pesaro a scant 45 minutes.
The city is small and picturesque, with architecture dating
mainly from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
The climate is ideal for summer: days are warm and dry, skies
are clear, and nights are cool. The inhabitants, the Urbinati ,
take full advantage of their pleasant evenings, and gather in
their Piazze to chat with friends, or pass the time in an
outdoor caff?i> to talk and do people watching.
Urbino is an ideal place for immersion into Italian life. It is
sophisticated, open to foreigners, easy to explore, and
relatively safe to wander in.
The city strongly promotes cultural understanding and in
particular thanks to the University centre can also be
considered a language and culture laboratory.
It was one
of the most prestigious courts of Europe, one of its most
cosmopolitan places, ruled by the remarkable Federico da
Montefeltro, who employed some of the greatest artist and
architects of the time to decorate the entire town.
The city is also known as the birthplace of the painter Raphael,
whose native home is a Museum, and of the architect Bramante,
who was chiefly responsible for the design and construction of
St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
The town has
retained some of its picturesque medieval aspect and is a major
university town being home to the University of Urbino founded
in 1564.
Undoubtedly,
Urbino remains one of the most important towns in the Marche and
in Italy giving to the tourist a remarkable feeling of the great
Italian art and history.
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