Isabelle and Elke at the Photowalk in Fermo

The agenda of Marche Tourism is never empty! At the beginning of September, a new important spot of our region was ready to welcome more than 200 photo-participants. The city was Fermo, this time, one of the 5 “provinces” of Le Marche. My fellow bloggers Isabelle and Elke, and some of their friends, joined the Photowalk and here is their report.

“The sunshine was waiting for us in Fermo. Parking turned out to be very easy; Terminal Via Tomassini on the edge of the city walls with a lift to the old town of Fermo. Upon arrival, the organization had already divided us into groups so, right after the group photo and the photo with the ambassadors of Le Marche (to which our blog also belongs), everyone quickly set off with a guide.

Our guide made a solid move to the Palazzo Paccaroni (17^th century) where the polar and natural science museum are located. The first part consisted mainly of numerous stuffed birds donated by Tommasso Salvadori, the polar part included a large collection of objects from the North and the South Pole expeditions of the scientist Silio Zavatti. In addition, his collection gradually expanded with numerous gifts.

The rooms of the Palazzo with their beautifully painted ceilings alone were well worth seeing.

Next we climbed a narrow lane up to the Cathedral of Fermo. On the forecourt a group of flag-wavers awaited us with a demonstration of their art. The cathedral was built in the 13^th century on the site of an early Christian church from the 6^th century. But in the 18^th century it had to give way to the present cathedral. Only the bell tower is still from the 13^th century.

Inside, we were not allowed to take any detailed photos – a bit weird for a photo walk. The magnificent mosaic floor from the paleo-Christian church would have been worth a photo. Particularly noteworthy were the three domes, which were discovered inside when looking at the ceiling. Just because the guide drew our attention to this, I realized that the domes were painted only deceptively real – it was the famous “trompe-oeil” painting.

The third station was an underground reservoir of water dating back to the Roman times, located in a side street of Piazza del Popolo. Incredibly impressive: the reservoir was made up of 30 large vaults and once fed all the fountains and public sources of the city. Until 1980, 6 more of these vaults were used for fountains in the city.

Today, part of the vault houses an escape room – a fantasy-inspiring space for the popular adventure game. [Here’s Laura’s speaking. I have become quite a nerd about escape rooms, and I haven’t tried yet this one. I will keep you updated if one day I will try it myself ? ]

No Photowalk can be thought of without a culinary demonstration. Taking advantage from the “Grains and Hop Festival” that would have taken place in some days, we got tips from an experienced pizza-baker, on how to get a very good and very thin dough. He took type 0 flour instead of the usual type 00 pizza-flour and recommended to make the dough 24 hours in advance and put it in the refrigerator overnight after the first go. The next day you should then let it rise further. Then form into round dough balls. To form the pizza, you spread out such a dough ball with your hands until the dough is so thin that you can whirl it with your hands in the air and enlarge it further. In no case you should take a rolling pin, because that squeezes the air out of the dough and makes it too firm when baking.

The last thing we visited at Palazzo Priori was an old library with a beautiful, large globe from the 18^th century. It was made by Filippantonio Morrone with paper from Fabriano. The library itself contains 300,000 books, manuscripts and scores stored in beautiful walnut shelves.

The showpiece of the collection, however, was an original Rubens: The Adoration of the Shepherds. The painting was commissioned by the monks of Chiesa San Filippo Neri in Fermo (located opposite of the Polar Museum) under Peter Paul Rubens.

After the tour, we had lunch at the Osteria Orsolina outside the city walls. The organizers had recommended it and we were not disappointed: they had traditional dishes and delicious desserts.

Many thanks to the organizers for this nice day. We look forward to the last Photowalk of the year on 29th of September in Cupramontana!

Ci vediamo!