The train station for Urbino is just over a mile south of the Old Town; there are buses to the piazza delia Repubblica in the heart of town. The piazza, which draws the hip crowd as well as the town’s elders, is the best place for watching the daily drill. Nothing fancy here, but you can take refreshments at one of the many cafes under the arches as you watch the crowds pass by. Just off the piazza at via C.
Battisti 5, is the basement restaurant Trattoria del Leone, where you can dine on a tasty four cheese risotto and rich cicercbiata, a sweet honey cake topped with almonds and cinnamon, without damaging your budget. The restaurant is closed on Sundays and the last two weeks in June; The Ducal Palace of Federico is the city’s main attraction; it is only a fiveminute walk from the piazza delia Repub blica. As the corso Garibaldi snakes up from the piazza, you immediately become aware of the 16th century university, which has a surprisingly complete bookshop where you can obtain translations of many of the classics.
The Renaissance Palazzo Ducale, with its graceful court yard, 11 Cortile d’Onore, is located in the piazza Duca Federico. Commissioned in 1444 by the duke, who called in the Dalmatian architect Luciano da Laurana to incorpo rate the two existing and dismal Gothic palaces, it was completed by the Sienese Francesco di Giorgio Martini in 1482. Much of the palace is devoted to the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche. The masterpieces include La Muta, Raphael’s strong and tender portrait of a lady possessing a Leonardesque mystery; Piero delia Francesca’s com pelling Flagellation, a triumph of perspective and scale; and his Madonna of Senigalia, a ferociously silent portrait with a deep emotional gravity.
Oilier interesting works in clude Paolo Uccello’s Profanation of the Host, the Ideal Town, an’ architectural rendering, and a fine Madonna and Child by Orazio Gentileschi. The wonderful collection of Federico Barroci’s paintings reveals the artist’s superb ma nipulation of light and space and his emotionalism, which greatly influenced the development of 17thcentury Baroque art. One of his masterpieces, the enormous Last Supper, captures a bracing psychological truth, although many feel the Christ figure is a little saccharin. During the duke’s reign the palace brimmed with the best art and furnishings, and scholars, poets, and artists flocked here.
Today imagination is needed to recall those lively times, since most of the furnishings were carted off when the popes took control and are now on view in the Vatican Museum. However, the space itself is masterful; it captivated both Lorenzo de’ Medici and Montaigne.The throne room contains magnificent 17thcentury Gobelin tapestries, but it is the duke’s study that is riveting. Lustrous wood inlay work designed by Botticelli and Pontelli manifests the ideals of the Renaissance. The room is a triumph of trompe l’oeil, with books and armor that seem to spill magically out of closets. Pedro Berruguete’s portrait of the duke perhaps best sums up his character: Bedecked in shimmering armor and silk robes, the duke sits reading serenely, his small son, Guidobaldo, at his knee.
During the reign of Guidobaldo, Federico’s son, the poet and diplomat Baldassare Castiglione was in service at Urbino, and conceived his famous book The Courtier here. Written in the form of conversations and consciously mod eled after Plato’s Republic, it examines the ideal of the perfect courtier and was considered required reading for a gentleman.
The Duomo, near the palace, is a Neoclassical reworking of an older church and contains some interesting works by Federico Barocci. The diocesan museum, the A1bani, has a good collection of ceramics, vestments, and chalices. A little beyond the Duomo, along via Saffi, you’ll see signs for the bar/pizzeria Le 3 Piante, located on one of the side streets at via Voltaccia della Vecchia 1. The interior is Spartan, but the pleasant vine-covered terrace overlooking sloping hills is the perfect retreat after a morning of museums.
The street crests at piazzale Roma; just to the west, the public gardens and the great fortress of Cardinal A1bornoz offer a superb view of the city. Also from the piazza delia Repubblica, via Barocci leads to the Oratorio di San Gio vanni Battista, where the colorful frescoes depicting the life of Saint John the Baptist by the Salimbeni brothers can be seen.
The surrounding hills of Urbino are as beautiful as those of Tuscany, and greener. Ensconced on the summit of one of these hills is the attractive Beauty Farm, the creation of Isabella Giuriatti, a transplanted aesthetician from Cortina D’Ampezzo, Her stone farmhouse is outfitted with antiques and a touch of the new; the beauty ritual for guests includes facials and massages in which her own natural herbal creams are used. The area makes a good base for day trips into the countryside and nearby historic towns and sights. You can drive to the picturesque town of San Leo, medieval to the core, with requisite fortress.
Set on the highest rock (2,096 feet), the fortress enjoys an impregnable position overlooking very sheer cliffs. An obvious selling point for the Inquisitors, who decided to imprison Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, master con man and magician of the 18th century, here. Even his chicanery was insufficient to defeat this place, in whose tiny cell, called il pozzetto (the shaft), he languished for four years before apoplexy claimed him. San Leo also has two fine churches worth visiting.