Marche

I spent several days in Pesaro this past summer while attending the Rossini festival. It is a lovely seaside town and a summertime destination for families. The area along the sea is filled with resort hotels and there are plenty of excellent restaurants serving fresh fish from the Adriatic. Depending on your preferences, there are easy connections to Urbino and to Rimini as well as castles and museums within Pesaro itself. The TI is very helpful and offers rental of a comprehensive self-guided walking tour.

Cities I love: Urbino, Macerata, Recanati, Ascoli Piceno, Pesaro. Recanati can be a day trip from Macerata, otherwise a couple of nights in each.

Ascoli Piceno and Urbino are particularly interesting.

Could 1 of the towns be used as a base to explore the region? We are thinking of being there a week and don't want to pack up each day.

Pesaro would be good for one base. If you have a car, Ascoli Piceno is well located geographically, but the train station is a good walk from town, making daytrips more complicated.

We found the Frasassi Caves to be fascinating. I think we saw them as a day trip from Urbino, which is, itself, a do-not-miss. If you do want to see the caves, it's important to check on when the English tours are.

We liked Senigallia as a base. It has great restaurants, including a couple of Michelin-starred places. Our favorite had tables on the beach where we could enjoy wine or beer at happy hour with our toes in the sand ... Nice way to wind down after a busy day sightseeing.

It's a charming Italian town that just happens to be located on a gorgeous, long, white sand beach. We enjoyed day trips to the caverns of frassasi and the hill town of Corinaldo.