Todays adventure is as follows:
Monte San Martino, La Madonna dell’Ambro, Smerillo, Lavanda Blu, then home. 9am to 4:40 pm a beautiful full day. If you click on any highlighted word it will take you to a site.
Oh!!! I also happened to travel into 3 different Provinces: Ascoli Piceno, Macerata and Fermo.
Three birds, One stone!
O.K. First Stop….
This Jewel of a village should be counted as one of the “Borghi Più Belli” but it’s not recognized , it’s in the Province of Macerata. Monte San Martino is known for being the land of Art & History, the city houses artworks by Vittore and Carlo Crivelli, Girolamo di Giovanni da Camerino and Vincenzo Pagani.
My guide Pierpaolo told me a story of how his grandfather had hidden an escaped prisoner of war for many months, so did a few other people of Monte San Martino. Because of this, in 1989 J. Keith Killby a former prisoner of war who was imprisoned in Servigliano, along with other veterans of the second World War, they created The Monte San Martino Trust, that gives English-language bursaries to Italians, aged 18 to 25, in recognition of the courage and sacrifice of the Italian country people who rescued thousands of escaped Allied PoWs after the truce in 1943.
Driving into the Village of Monte San Martino
Welcome!
The great wall of protection, misty morning.
You now I had to get artsy and make a Black/White hihihihiii
I first visited the church in the main Piazza.
Chiesa e Convento S. Agostino – Monte San Martino
Chiesa di Saint’ Agostino, now to go inside.
At first glance, nice church, then I looked to the left.
It Survived Hidden
Over the centuries people, not knowing the value of art, wanting to modernize they covered-up and built onto this church. After an earthquake many years ago, the wall crumbled exposing a gorgeous fresco done by Vincenzo Pagani done in 1957.
This Christ in wood was painted many times in the past centuries. After a very careful restoration the garment that was a solid blue color, the restorers managed to find the original painting underneath, if you can zoom you can see the details….. Pisst! …Notice the canvas painting behind Christ?
The canvas paintings in this church and many in the area, are placed within the walls that are framed. Inside this hidden door is the mechanism to roll the paintings down so they may be cleaned.
Next we too a walk to the second church in the village.
on our way….
The old prison! All I could think was it looks so pretty, LOL
Here we are…..
Chiesa S. Martino di Monte San Martino
Church S. Martino of Monte San Martino, there was a little earthquake damage, hence the wood. But here they house the famous work by the Crivelli brothers.
My wonderful guide Pierpaolo Buttoni, we had lots of laughs talking about the art.
This was done by Vittore Crivelli 1490, the gold is real ,not goldleaf or painted.
This is a very lavish alter, my photo does not do the woodwork justice.
Silly me, I did not take a photo when the light was on…..BUT… on the stone template above the door reads something like this. “This room, is only for those that want to make the journey to Jerusalem, and pray with the same holiness as if you went to Jerusalem, in person.”
Don’t hold me to this statement, it is what I understood and could be wrong.
Ahhhhh, the Crivelli brothers
This Painting was a collaboration of the 2 brothers, Vittore & Carlo Crivelli, you can actually see the different hands of the painters, even on the same panel.
This was done by Carlo Crivelli himself… I love his work for the amazing details and his sinister sense of humor. He is a true master, only on this piece, from the movement in the skirt to the strange leaf stockings. If you can zoom ,you can see this master’s attention, to detail and his bit of his, craycray.
Next……
Madonna delle Grazie Church – Monte San Martino (MC)
Chiesa e Convento S. Agostino – Monte San Martino
The space is a bit breathtaking… here are 3 spaces, the center one the most important. This church dated back to 1468
This is the center room, if you can zoom in, you will notice hammer marks on the fresco, humm what is that?
Again, Survived Hidden
Well in the 1500’s these panels were put on the frescos in the previous photo to hide it…. this is much uglier, go figure?
Above are the protectors of this temple. They look like, Moors.
Next Stop….. Madonna dell’Ambro…..
On my way there I ZIPPED through Amandola, is a Province of fermo….
Now to…….
History – Santuario Madonna dell’Ambro
When you walk up the path all you hear is rushing water and a crisp freshness in the air, clean and pure.
The river Ambro, there was a sheepherder who was a mute girl, she prayed everyday to the hollow of a beech tree.
She brought gifts of wildflowers… Then one day walking along the river with her sheep… she dropped to her knees for what she saw!
The Madonna and child appeared upon a huge rock in the middle of the river.
The Madonna dell’Ambro granted speech to the little mute sheepherder.
People came from far away because of this miracle and they built this Sanctuary.
Hello Smerillo, this word makes me think of Smurfs… go figure. We are still in Fermo.
Oh look a door, let’s go look!
Look at that! Monte San Martino, where we were a few hours ago looking at the Crivelli’s.
The blue in the distance is the Adriatic Sea.
Back through the door
What’s That?!?! Random fountain.
Since I was on this side of town I decided to go visit
my friends Lisa & Hans at their place, in the Province of Ascoli Piceno.
They have a beautiful, off the beaten path, B&B that has rooms and apartments with kitchens as well.
Their land is filled with many different levels and gardens. They have olive trees, fruit trees, herb gardens, all around edible gardens and rows and rows of lavender.
Inside all of these gardens, there are places where you can camp out, either with your own tent or you can rent a tent, they also have cute camping structures. Their place is called…….
Lavanda Blu
The sweet smells in the air are intoxicating, I was transported to another place.
Herb Garden
The views are amazing.
Rent a little bedroom off in a private corner of the property.
I little video on Lavanda Blu.
If you made it to the end of my post, I truly hope you enjoyed it. Please feel free to leave a comment, I always enjoy feedback.
Thank You, Issa.
©2017 written by Issa and all photos except the ones mentioned below, are taken by Issa as well.
Disclaimer: 1 full photo of Crivelli brothers painting and Lavanda Blu video I got from the internet
Marche Magic 
What a lovely tour! Thank you for sharing your joy and photos!
Virtual hugs,
Judie
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I am so glad you enjoyed it, thank you Judilyn
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well done Issa, what a delightful scenic tour with stunning photos and comfortable descriptions of some very special places! thanks
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Thanks… I try to make the captions to the photos as fun as possible.
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and you do it very well!
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Thank you for sharing this the Marche beauty. I really enjoyed it, a good start of my day!
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Le Marche are full of beautiful treasures that are hidden and I just love going around discovering them all….. Thank you so much Joe for enjoying my post, have a beautiful day!
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Thank you for uncovering these lost treasures for us! You can feel the history and holiness of these works through your images and post. So amazing! Again another destination that I would love to add to my dream travel list. 🙂
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Come Le Marche is waiting!!! woohooo!
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I showed your blog to a group of my friends at a birthday party last night and they all agree we need to come visit you. 🙂
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Yes!!!! A vacation you will never forget without the hoards of tourist to ruin it lolol… I always feel bad when friends come to visit and want to go to the main Italian places like Florence, Rome, Venice because when they come here to Le Marche they feel they wasted so much time in the other places. By all means yes visit them but for only a day or 2 max….
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The history lesson taught in your post is beneficially informative.Those are stories that I worry will be lost as generations move at a faster and faster pace. Thank you for taking the time to pass on the stories.
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Thank you, I have always wanted to be a storyteller. Passing history on in fun story form gets remembered…..thank you again for taking the time
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That is such a pretty prison 😀 the wine, the scenery… the art! Le Marche seems truly magical!
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Thank you for taking the time to go through my body of work, thank u.
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