They call it the city of a hundred towers, but it had twice that many: after the year 1000 some two hundred went up, and tradition says Frederick II had ninety-one of them pulled down in one go, in 1242. Those that remain still rise above an old town built almost entirely of travertine, the stone that gives the city its colour. Piazza del Popolo is paved with the same travertine, polished by centuries of footsteps: at sunset it looks like a mirror, and it is held to be among the most beautiful squares in Italy.
The Caffè Meletti, in art nouveau style, has served its anisette since 1907; in 2026 the Ventidio Basso theatre entered the UNESCO heritage list together with nine other shareholders' theatres of central Italy. Every summer the Quintana brings the fourteenth century back into the streets: districts, flag-throwers and the joust against the moor. The city stands where the Castellano runs into the Tronto, closed in by mountains on three sides and held between two national parks, the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga on one side, the Sibillini on the other; it even owns a detached piece of territory, the Piana della Forcella, wedged between two neighbouring comuni. At table, the ascolana olive, stuffed and fried, is the city's ambassador to the world.
Ascoli's Piazza del Popolo · cattedrale di Sant'Emidio · chiesa di San Cristoforo and 30 more
20 places to stay · top rated: Villa Shmitanka 9.7 · Il Salice 9.4
Next up: Feast of Saint Emygdius, Thursday 5 August
Nearest airport: Pescara, 68 km away
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📅 Every year, on 5 August
On 5 August Ascoli celebrates Saint Emygdius, titular of the cathedral. It is also the month of the Quintana, the equestrian joust whose procession sets out from Piazza del Popolo.
Ascoli's Piazza del Popolo A Renaissance square defined by local travertine, home to the Gothic church of San Francesco and a 16th-centur 
cattedrale di Sant'Emidio The Roman forum basilica turned cathedral, and Crivelli's polyptych still in its place. 
chiesa di San Cristoforo Ascoli's church of the Good Death, with Callido's oldest surviving organ. 
chiesa di San Francesco Ascoli's Franciscan church, with musical columns beside the doorway. 
chiesa di San Pietro martire Ascoli's Dominican gothic church, grown by swallowing the noble towers. 
chiesa di San Tommaso Apostolo Ascoli's Romanesque church over the Roman amphitheatre, bowls set in its front. Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Ascoli Piceno, but an easy day trip away.
