Monte San Martino

Monte San Martino on top of the hill.  Le Marche Region is full of little hilltop towns.  About 500 live in this one.  Second photo is the place where we stayed.  I took the picture down in the valley about a kilometer away.  

The middle picture is in Monte San Martino looking out over the countryside.  The next picture is from our villa looking west to the Apennines just before sunset.  The last picture is looking almost the same direction, but from higher up in Monte San Martino.

We were in the southern-most province of Marche, Ascoli Piceno, whose capital city is Ascoli Piceno.  Marche is bordered on the east by the Adriatic and on the west by the Appenines.  It is mostly agricultural, wine, olives, grains, but has some industry.  Several shoe factories and outlet stores, at which Cindy and I were both able to find some nice Italian shoes.  Went to the Dezi winery in Servigliano and bought half a case of wine.  We actually brought about three dozen bottles home with us.  Wine buying here is sort of iffy for both quantity and quality, so I mostly only buy inexpensive everyday type wine, like that I mentioned yesterday.  Marche is home to Rosso Piceno and Verdicchio, I guess their two most well-known DOC red and white wines.  I like them both.  The lack of steady electricity is one of the culprits of iffy wine quality here -- electricity goes out and the bottles heat up.  Of course many restaurants don't have air conditioning so their wine stays hot.  I quit ordering red wine out because a lot of times it was so hot.  Everyone stores their wine standing up, even the two good wine stores that import directly from Italy.