Places to go
Riviera del Conero: where the Adriatic suddenly has cliffs
An hour south, the endless sandy beach stops and a limestone massif drops straight into the sea. The finest coves on the whole Adriatic coast are here.
- Distance
- approx. 55 km, about an hour
- Good for
- A full day, hiking, swimming
- Best time
- May to June, September
The Adriatic has a reputation for being flat and uniform. Sixty kilometres south of Casa Bellavista it contradicts itself: Monte Conero, a limestone headland of 572 metres, falls straight into the water.
The towns
Sirolo is a medieval village on the cliff, with paved lanes and a square looking far out to sea. Numana sits slightly lower and has a small harbour. Both are packed in August and exactly right in June or September.
Portonovo, further north, is the quietest of the three bays: white pebble beaches, emerald water, and the eleventh-century Romanesque church of Santa Maria di Portonovo right on the slope.
The beaches
They are pebble rather than sand, and the water is correspondingly clearer than elsewhere on this coast. The famous one is the Spiaggia delle Due Sorelle with its two rock stacks, reachable essentially only by boat, which is also why it still looks the way it does. Mezzavalle is wilder and reached on foot down a steep path.
If you prefer things easier, Marcelli offers a well-serviced beach several kilometres long.
More than swimming
The Parco del Conero is a nature park with a dense web of trails through Mediterranean scrub, and views along the entire coast from the top. On the slopes grows Rosso Conero, a Montepulciano-based red you can taste in the local cellars.
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