Fanum Fortunae, the temple of Fortune, gave it its name; the Arch of Augustus, raised at the beginning of the first century, still serves as its gate, and it is the symbol the people of Fano care about most. Here the Via Flaminia ended, and the Roman town can be read in the Augustan walls, among the best preserved in the Marche. Its first appearance in history is in 49 before Christ, when Caesar occupied it along with Pesaro and Ancona.
A little further on, on the Metauro, in 271 the Roman army stopped the Alamanni in the battle of Fano. Today it is the third city of the Marche, after Ancona and Pesaro. The Carnival of Fano is documented from 1347 — the oldest in Italy — and it flies sweet: from the floats comes the «getto», a shower of sweets and chocolates. The fishing harbour dictates the cooking: brodetto alla fanese and the moretta, the sailors' coffee laced three times over, close the day.
Chiesa di San Pietro in Valle · Chiesa di Sant'Agostino · Chiesa di Santa Maria del Gonfalone and 3 more
Casciotta d'Urbino
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Next up: Saint Paterniano, the first bishop who patronises Fano, Grottammare and Cervia, Saturday 10 July
Nearest airport: Ancona, 38 km away
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📅 Every year, on 10 July
Fano celebrates Saint Paterniano on 10 July; born in the town around 275 and died in 360, he was most probably the town's first bishop and is venerated as patron not only of Fano, but also of Grottammare and Cervia.
Chiesa di San Pietro in Valle Baroque Oratorian church in Fano: unfinished façade, white-and-gold interior, dome of 1696. Chiesa di Sant'Agostino Augustinian church in Fano destroyed by bombing, with a Renaissance cloister and frescoed lunettes. Chiesa di Santa Maria del Gonfalone Former seventeenth-century church of the Gonfalone, with a coffered wooden ceiling of 1606, later a theatre. Chiesa di Santa Maria Nuova Franciscan church in Fano with Perugino's Pala di Fano of 1497 and a Renaissance portal of 1498. Porta della Mandria Roman gate in Fano's walls, in yellow sandstone opus quadratum, on the road to Pesaro. Teatro della Fortuna Fano's opera house, born in the 1299 Palazzo del Podestà, with the Sala Poletti; opera, drama and dance. Sheep's and cow's milk, aged twenty to thirty days: casciotta d'Urbino, Michelangelo's favourite cheese, has been DOP since 1996.
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The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Fano, but an easy day trip away.
