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A windy walled town built on a hill that receives the
last rays of the sun when all around is in shadow; "non
e' ancor notte a Cingoli", (it's not yet night at
Cingoli) goes a popular Marche saying, meaning, "don't
count your chickens before they're hatched". |
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The
place has also earned the title "the Balcony of the Marche" for
its sweeping panoramas - the best views are from behind the
church of San Francesco. Climb up Corso Garibaldi to Piazza
Vittorio Emanuele, once the forum of Roman Cingulum and still
the heart of this stone-built town.
To one side stands a fine 16thC Renaissance town hall with a
much earlier clock tower. Inside is the smart, newly arranged
Museo Archeologico with interesting Bronze Age lumber - to see
the collection call at the library (Biblioteca comunale) in Via
Mazzini 1. The library also houses the town's Pinacoteca, or art
gallery, with another of the region's serendipity collections of
paintings by Lorenzo Lotto, this time a sumptuous Madonna of the
Rosary.
Cingoli's brief moment of glory came with the one-year papacy of
its son, Pius VIII, in 1829; it was he who ordered a new facade
for the late Baroque Cathedral on the main piazza, never
finished due to his early death. Behind the town hall is hushed
Via del Podesta', Cingoli's most atmospheric street. |