fano
 
 
 
Fifteen minutes south of Pésaro by half-hourly bus, FANO has changed since Robert Browning came here in 1848, seeking relief from the heat and crowds of Florence: its beaches remain splendid but they now attract thousands of package tourists every year. As well as the sandy and sheltered Lido and the long, pebbly Sassonia there are further beaches at Torrette and Marotta to the south, both easily reached by bus. Fano is a pleasant enough place if a little humdrum, and comfortably combines its role as resort with that of small fishing port and minor historical town.

The Town
If you're coming to Fano by bus, you could ask to be dropped off at the crenellated Porta Maggiore and the remnants of the medieval defensive walls, on the southwestern side of the town centre. Behind them is a Roman gate, the Arco di Augusto , impressive despite having been truncated in the fifteenth century when Federico da Montefeltro blasted away its upper storey. You can see what it used to look like in a relief on the facade of the adjacent church of San Michele.

The Roman precursor of Fano, named Fanum Fortunae after its Temple of Fortune, stood at the eastern end of the Via Flaminia, which cut across the Apennines to Rome. The town is still built around a Roman crossroads plan: Via Arco di Augusto and Corso Matteotti follow the routes of the cardus and decumanus, and their junction is marked with a copy of a Roman milestone stating its distance from the capital (195.4 Roman miles). There are few other relics of Roman Fano, although the fifteenth-century fountain in the main square, along Via Mazzini, is dedicated to Fortune.

Overlooking the fountain are the reconstructed thirteenth-century Palazzo della Ragione and the fifteenth-century Corte Malatestiana , dating from the time Fano was ruled by the Malatesta family. Its most notorious member was Sigismondo, whose disagreements with the pope led to the siege of Fano (when the Arco di Augusto lost its top) and his excommunication. After the death of his first wife - whom he was suspected of having poisoned - Sigismondo remarried in Fano in 1449, holding a three-day banquet in the Corte Malatestiana. Rumours about Sigismondo's sinister interest in his wives' diet revived when, seven years later, his second wife also died unexpectedly, leaving him free to marry his long-time mistress, Isotta degli Atti . The Corte is at its best nowadays on summer evenings, when its loggias, turrets and trefoil windows provide a backdrop for concerts. Inside there's a small museum and art gallery (summer Tues-Sat 8.30am-12.30pm & 5-7pm, Sun 8am-1pm; winter Tues-Sat 8.30am-12.30pm; L4000/¬2.06) whose most striking exhibit is a mosaic of a winged figure riding a panther. Upstairs, the art gallery is worth visiting for an insight into the Victorian psyche, as it's here that you'll find Guercino's The Guardian Angel , a painting that entranced Browning during his stay here and inspired a poem of the same title. Expressing a wistful desire to take the place of the child depicted here learning how to pray, the gushingly sentimental poem became incredibly popular, and Italy was flooded with reproductions of the painting for holidaying Browning fans. The keenest disciples set up a club, membership of which was gained by travelling to Fano and sending the founder a postcard.

Less saccharine paintings are to be found in the Renaissance church of Santa Maria Nuova on Via de Pili, off the main square. The two works by Perugino, a Madonna , Child and Saints and an Annunciation , are both suffused with a calm luminosity, emanating as much from the figures as from the landscapes behind them.

A less demanding way of punctuating your sessions on the beach would be to browse through the classy shopping arcade tastefully laid out in the cloisters of the ex-convent of San Domenico .