Rossini's birthplace, Piazza del Popolo and Palazzo Ducale, Giovanni Bellini's altarpiece, the Cathedral mosaics and Pomodoro's Sphere by the sea.
Pesaro is the city where Gioachino Rossini was born, a UNESCO Creative City for Music and Italian Capital of Culture in 2024. A small, flat centre with the palace of the Sforza and Della Rovere lords, a museum housing a masterpiece by Giovanni Bellini and, ten minutes' walk away, the seafront with its Art Nouveau villas.
Times are a guide: driving times are worked out without traffic, then come the visits and ten minutes at every stop to park. In summer towards the coast and at rush hour allow extra time.
Rossini was born here on 29 February 1792, the son of a trumpet player and a singer. The house contains portraits, prints, letters and objects from his life, and you can listen to his music as you move from room to room. A few steps away are the nineteenth-century Teatro Rossini and the Conservatory that the composer bequeathed to the city.
Part of the Musei Civici: a combined ticket with Palazzo Mosca.
Pesaro's grand square, with its fountain of tritons and sea horses. It's dominated by Palazzo Ducale, built by the Sforza in the fifteenth century and enlarged by the Della Rovere, Dukes of Urbino, when they moved their court here: the portico with its arches and decorated windows faces the square.
The palace houses the Prefecture: you can only visit inside on special occasions.
The most important piece is Giovanni Bellini's Pala di Pesaro, the Coronation of the Virgin, painted around 1475: behind the throne opens a landscape with a castle, one of the first true landscapes in Italian painting. Alongside it, a large collection of majolica from Pesaro, Urbino and Casteldurante.
Closed on Mondays out of season: check opening times.
Beneath the Cathedral floor, protected by glass panels and trapdoors, lie the mosaics of two earlier churches from the fourth and sixth centuries: animals, figures and geometric patterns that you can see as you walk above them.
Free entry, outside service times.
On the seafront, the early twentieth-century Villino Ruggeri is the masterpiece of Art Nouveau in Italy: the façade is a lacework of leaves, waves and flowers in stucco. A little further on, in Piazzale della Libertà, stands Arnaldo Pomodoro's Sfera Grande in bronze, the symbol of modern Pesaro, with the sea behind it.
The villa is private: you can view it from outside.
How long it takes from each town, the drive back included. Tap a town to see the plan from there.
Almost every old town has a limited traffic zone (ZTL) with cameras: park outside and walk in. The fine reaches your home, abroad too. ZTL and car parks town by town
Romagna Transfer picks you up at your hotel, drops you in front of every stop and brings you back: no parking, no ZTL, and the wine is yours to enjoy.
The Arch of Augustus on the Via Flaminia, the Fountain of Fortune, the Malatesta Court and the two Perugino paintings in Santa Maria Nuova
5 h 20 from Castrocaro Terme Half day
The plan
The panoramic road along the cliff, Villa Imperiale (in summer), the villages of Fiorenzuola di Focara and Casteldimezzo, the view from Gabicce Monte.
5 h 50 from Castrocaro Terme Half day
The planVespasian's Roman tunnel through the gorge, the Della Rovere Ducal Palace, the Church of the Dead with its mummies and the home of the Befana.
7 h 00 from Castrocaro Terme Full day
The plan
The Rocca Roveresca in Mondavio, the intact walls of Corinaldo, the Piaggia, the Pozzo della Polenta and the house of Saint Maria Goretti.
6 h 20 from Castrocaro Terme Long half day
The planItaly's most famous caves, the Ancona Abyss, the neoclassical temple inside the rock and the Romanesque abbey of San Vittore.
7 h 35 from Castrocaro Terme Full day
The planThe sanctuary of the Holy House of Loreto, Palazzo Leopardi with the poet's library and the Hill of the Infinite.
7 h 25 from Castrocaro Terme Full day
The planTrips written by our editors from the facts of our monument pages and the official sites. Opening days and hours change: the note under every place tells you what to check before you leave. No prices: you find them on the museums' sites.
