Le Marche History

 

The Marche was know since the ancient times as the territory of Picenum. The area near the coast was occupied by a tribe of Gauls called Senones. After the battle of Sentium in 295 BC the region was conquered by the Romans, which founded numerous colonies connecting most of them to Rome with roads.

 

The Goths invaded the region after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. After the Gothic War The Marche were part of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna.

 

The name “Marche” comes from the marches of Ancona, Camerino and Fermo, the name of this part of the region during the ninth and eleventh century.

 

All the territory became part of the Papal State but with local lords and free communes. The commune of Ancona in the twelfth century was a maritime republic as it resisted to the Republic of Venice and the imperial authority of Barbarossa.

 

The region in the Renaissance period was part of the Papal States starting from 1631 when the last independent entity was dissolved. The 4th November of 1860 thr region was annexed to the new kingdom of Italy by a plebiscite. The Marche was the territory of the last battle for the union of Italy with the battle of Castelfidardo.The ​

 

The age old ways find their origin in the remote past and survive today as relics of the mode of life and thought of the people and culture.

 

In spite of the harshness of their life in the past, there were many in the Marches who lived to over eighty at a time when the average life expectancy for a countryman was thirty-eight. The cause of this longevity- which in 1871 was almost double the national average- probably laly in a diet based on maize, animal fat, vegetables, fruit and wine. 

 

The quality of the food produced over the century ago is still maintained today in spite of the effects of technology because of a desire to preserve the typical products and culinary traditions which are such an integral part of the culture.

 

It is well documented that some of the best food in Italy come from the Le Marche Region.