For two decades of the fifteenth century, this small city in the Marche hills was a capital of Europe: Piero della Francesca and Laurana worked at Federico da Montefeltro's court, and the Ducal Palace — "a city in the shape of a palace" — today houses the National Gallery of the Marche with the Flagellation and the Ideal City panel. Urbino has been UNESCO-listed since 1998.
Raphael was born here in 1483: his birth house is open, and his "La Muta" hangs steps from where it was conceived. The university of 1506 keeps the town young; the flaky crescia flatbread and the wind around the palace turrets do the rest.
Near Urbino
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
