Blue flag designated Civitanova Marche is a popular seaside resort offering a long beach and both a fishing port and a leisure port as well as three cycle paths. Starting from the coastal inhabited area, start your itinerary by visiting Upper Civitanova, an ancient village built on a hill and enclosed behind the walls of a medieval castle. 

A roughly 20 minute drive from Civitanova Marche brings you to one of the most important destinations in the world for Catholic pilgrims, the city of Loreto, which owes its celebrity to the famous Basilica with its prized relic from the Holy House of Mary of Nazareth where, according to tradition, the Virgin Mary was born, grew up and received the annunciation of the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ. The celebrated sanctuary has been embellished by the works of numerous artists including Luigi Vanvitelli, Pomarancio, Luca Signorelli, Melozzo da Forlì and Federico Zuccari. 

A few kilometres away from Loreto lies Recanati, a typical "balcony city" because of the wonderful panorama it offers. This was the birthplace of Giacomo Leopardi, one of the greatest poets of Italian literature as well as Beniamino Gigli, the famous opera singer.
Next to Recanati is Porto Recanati, a seaside resort with both pebble and sandy beaches and a steeply plunging shoreline. The area is completely flat with modern bathing facilities and play parks for children. Water sports can be enjoyed and there are cycle paths too. 

Travelling inland, visitors can discover some of Italy’s most beautiful towns and villages - small urban centres of considerable artistic and historic interest in the Marche: Montecassiano, awarded the tourist-environmental quality mark known as the Orange Flag by the Italian Touring club, an example of a compact urban layout of the late medieval period where still today it is possible to walk along a route through streets, squares and alleyways that have remained unchanged since the 15th century. Do not miss a visit to the Collegiata di S. Maria Assunta to admire the monumental altarpiece by Friar Mattia della Robbia.

Montecosaro, a small castle projecting upwards near to which stands the delightful Basilica of Santa Maria a Pie' di Chienti, a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture; Montelupone, a medieval town which is also Orange Flag accredited, whose major attraction are the town walls with four gates which once acted as the town’s defences. Here the visitor would be strongly advised to visit the thousand-year-old Abbey of San Firmano, a Benedictine abbey founded in the final years of the 10th century, featuring a considerably raised presbytery accessed by an impressive staircase.