Urbino

Urbino is a walled brick hill town of about 14,000 people that was, for thirty years in the fifteenth century, one of the most important courts in Europe. Federico da Montefeltro — mercenary captain, book collector, and the man with the broken nose in Piero della Francesca's profile portrait — built a palace that contemporaries described as a city in the form of a palace, and filled it with the best painters, architects and mathematicians available. Raphael was born four streets away. The whole historic centre is UNESCO-listed, and because the town never grew, the Renaissance plan is intact.

For the Palazzo Ducale, which holds Piero della Francesca's Flagellation, Raphael's portrait of a lady and Federico's intarsia study — a small room panelled in wood illusions that is one of the marvels of the Renaissance. And for a hill town that is a living university city rather than a museum.

We already publish a full guide to Urbino — read it here →

Things to do

• Palazzo Ducale and the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche — Piero's Flagellation and Ideal City panel, Raphael's La Muta, Uccello's Miracle of the Desecrated Host — in the building they were made for.
• Federico's studiolo — A tiny study lined with wood-inlay illusions of shelves, instruments and half-open cupboards. Perspective as a party trick, in 1476.
• The Casa Natale di Raffaello — The house where Raphael was born in 1483, with his father's workshop and an early fresco attributed to him.
• The two towers from the Fortezza Albornoz — The view that is on every book about the Renaissance — the palace's slim turrets above the brick town.
• Oratorio di San Giovanni Battista — A small oratory frescoed in 1416 by the Salimbeni brothers, late Gothic and almost always empty.
• Urbania and the Palazzo Ducale ceramics — 20 minutes west, and the historic centre of Marche maiolica production.
• A crescia from a griddle — Split hot, filled with prosciutto and casciotta, eaten standing up. The town's proper lunch.

2 days in Urbino

1. Day 1 The court

   Palazzo Ducale at opening — the courtyard, the Galleria and the studiolo, and the underground service rooms. Crescia for lunch. Afternoon at Raphael's house and the Oratorio di San Giovanni, then up to the Fortezza Albornoz for the view at sunset. Dinner in the centre.

2. Day 2 The Montefeltro

   Out by car: Urbania for the ceramics, the Furlo gorge, or north to San Leo's fortress. Truffles in autumn. Back for a last evening in the town.

Practical

Best time to go

April–June and September–October. Term time gives the town its energy — 15,000 students in a town of 14,000 residents. Winter is cold and often foggy on the ridge; August is quiet and hot. The Festa del Duca in August fills the streets with Renaissance pageantry.

Getting there

No railway. Ancona Falconara (AOI) is the airport, 1h20 away; Bologna and Rimini are the practical rail arrivals, with a bus on from Pesaro (about 50 minutes) or Fano. Driving is straightforward, but leave the car in the Borgo Mercatale car park below the walls and take the lift up.

Getting around

On foot, and it is genuinely steep — Urbino sits on two hills and the streets between them are ramps. A public lift runs from the Mercatale car park into the centre. Nothing inside the walls is more than fifteen minutes' walk, but allow for the gradient.

Eat & drink

Marchigiano cooking: crescia sfogliata (a layered flatbread from a griddle, split and filled with prosciutto and cheese), passatelli in brodo, coniglio in porchetta, and the casciotta d'Urbino, a soft sheep-and-cow cheese with DOP status that Michelangelo is said to have bought by the wheel. Truffles from the surrounding hills, especially in autumn. Verdicchio and Bianchello del Metauro to drink.

Know before you go

The Palazzo Ducale is closed on some Mondays and the last entry is well before closing time — check the day's hours. Raphael's birth house is small and often overlooked; it is worth the twenty minutes. Parking inside the walls is essentially impossible. Sunday and Monday close a lot of the eating.