These two neighbouring regions are generous, sweet, no-frills hub, that can inspire serenity and authentic peace. Large spaces, bucolic silences, beyond every curve a living tableau: it may be a sunflower-covered hill, a flow of rolling green-to-violet slopes, a waterfall, a solitary hermitage, a village that time forgot. No surprise Umbria attracts the mystics while Marche is the birth-land of poets and artists, for whom the interaction of human and nature played a great role such as Giacomo Leopardi, Raphael and Bramante. And if the spirit transcends, emotions take shape: in Assisi the Basilica of St Francis with Giotto frescoes as well in Orvieto in the Cathedral of St. Mary. And talking of spirit and emotions don't forget music: Umbria is hosting a world famous one-month long jazz festival each July since 1973 while Pesaro, the lively and gourmand Marche city by the sea, being birth town of Gioacchino Rossini, hosts each August an opera festival dedicated to this master of Italian melodrama.

Umbrian cuisine is as genuine as its landscape and as if time stopped since ages: rich in the use of spontaneous herbs that grow in the Umbrian valleys such as rosemary, marjoram, wild fennel and sage; ancient grains and beans such as spelt, barley and lentils never went out of fashion and are the main ingredients of heart-warming soups. Special mention goes to the truffles of Norcia, maybe not so high-up but as good as the world-famous Alba truffles. Marche's gastronomy share the same simplicity and authenticity plus add in the presence of the Adriatic sea: the region claims the paternity of the fish bouillon (brodetto di pesce), common in all the Adriatic coast from north to south but elevated here to unrivalled peaks. Buon Appetito!