How To Arrive in Ascoli Piceno
Its Geographical Position


Ascoli Piceno: mountains and hills, sea and sky
Ascoli Piceno stands on a cuneiform relief, 153 metres above sea level, in the central tract of Tronto Valley. As a whole it gives the impression to take up a depression in the shape of an amphitheatre, covered with mountains and hills for three-quarters and opened for the remaining part towards the sea. It's easy to reach Ascoli Piceno from everywhere, both with public or private means of transport. The town is well linked up with Rome through the consular Salaria Road, which joins to the Adriatic state Road and to the A 14 Motorway at Porto d'Ascoli. Piceno-Aprutina state Road leading to Teramo leads off consular Salaria Road, too. A regular and efficient Cameli bus service links the town to the capital. Rail communications are assured by the railway section Ascoli-San Benedetto with the relative connection on the railway line Lecce-Milano.
Coming from San Benedetto you can take the fast coaches of Cotravat that leave very frequently. By car, instead, you can take the Ascoli-Sea Highway or the consular Salaria Road. The town, counting about 56.000 inhabitants today, has its old town centre divided into four quarters: Sant'Emidio, San Venanzio, San Giacomo and Santa Maria Intervineas. In ancient times every quarter was divided into six districts. Outside the ancient town center eight quarters represent the new housing boom areas turned up eventually: Borgo Cartaro, Porta Romana, Borgo Solestà, Campo Parignano, Borgo Chiaro, Santi Filippo e Giacomo, Castagneti, Porta Maggiore.
During last ten years Ascoli has known a new and remarkable housing boom pole along the state Salaria Road that has been called Monticelli from the topographic name of the place. The province of Ascoli extends on an area of Kmq. 2.087, split into 73 communes with a population of over 360.000 inhabitants. It borders on Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo, Adriatic Sea and the territory of Macerata. The province is a border land, a point of contact of different cultures and peoples, then. The province boasts a long and marvellous strip of coast which stretches from the right side of the river Chienti to the left bank of the river Tronto, from Porto Sant'Elpidio, an ancient fishing village today a huge industrial centre to Porto d'Ascoli, a well known seaside resort. The coasts, low and covered by a fine and homogenous sand, are dotted with bright well-known tourist and bathing resorts that are rich in art and history such as Pedaso, Cupramarittima, Grottammare, San Benedetto del Tronto. Low hills, covered by a Mediterranean flora enriched by yellow broom, level out towards the touristic localities. The hinterland is predominated by gently-rolling green hills, which are rarely higher than 800 m.. In places they go towards the sea, in others they roll towards the valley. Only in some places they are torn an broken by steep gullies which give the panorama a moon-shaped aspect.
The province is mountainous only in the final western part that corresponds with the mountainous chains of the Sibillini whose top is Mount Vettore (2748 m.), the highest peak in the Marches Region, too. Ascoli's hinterland, still full of the traditional values of the ways of life of farmers and rich in historical memories, offers the tourist pleasant emotions. The Valleys of the Tronto, the Aso and the Tenna make the morphology of the territory vivacious and dinamic. Ascending the waters of these rivers we find small villages with very different aspects of urban life. At times they are at an isolated height (Acquaviva Pîcena), other times at the bottom of a valley (Acquasanta Terme), now on the peak of strong rockhold (Force), now on the steep cliff on the side of a hill (Montefortino). But all of them give the clear impression that in this province landscape, history, art and folklore have maintained the most natural and human dimensions possible. The province of Ascoli in the variety of its natural environments of sea, mountains, hills and villages fascinates the visitors and gives them the opportunity of discovering an enchanting patrimony of environment, an expression of a people who has known how to preserve an ideal condition of life, maybe lost in other places.

Back To Turist Information of Ascoli Piceno