The Marche, a region bursting with art cities, seaside resorts and nature parks, also has one very important element from the perspectives of tourism and the beauty of the territory: the towns and villages overlooking the sea.

The coastal landscape of the Marche from Gabicce Mare to San Benedetto del Tronto appears constantly changing in its shapes and colours. It will never cease to amaze the visitor with its white cliffs dropping steeply down to the blue of the Adriatic Sea, the deep green of its gentle hills punctuated with old villages, and the ochre colour of its long sandy shores. In many towns along the coast an “upper town” can be seen, well protected by the walls of a castle high up on a hill – the original inhabited settlement - and the marina, the flat area lying along the coast, only later used for living and commercial purposes.

This kind of layout is typical of the medieval “castra” of Gabicce Monte (the ancient “Castellum Ligabitii”), Casteldimezzo and Fiorenzuola di Focara, in the province of Pesaro Urbino, as well as those of Falconara Alta north of Ancona and Sirolo and Numana to the south, ancient walled cities whose origins are lost in the mists of time. Recanati, Potenza Picena and Sant’Elpidio a Mare are different however; these are important towns a fair distance from the sea whose coastal areas, originally simple coastal moorings, later became the major towns of Porto Recanati, Porto Potenza Picena and Porto Sant’Elpidio.

Civitanova Alta, with its picturesque walled village in a position dominating the sea is emblematic, while the nearby Porto San Giorgio, the ancient “Navale Firmanorum” consists of an upper part, the Castello district and the Fortress and, beyond the main road, the marina; nearby stands the splendid Torre di Palme castle, perched on a rock that plunges steeply down to the sea.
Other Picene centres follow: Cupra Marittima and Marano, Grottammare and Grottammare Alta.