We visited many small medieval Italian villages while in Italy, but of course the one we spent the most time in was Mondavio, since we stayed there. So let's have one more look at Mondavio as our featured example village. Seen from a distance, it has a typical look of a wall, stone buildings, and some towers. This view is from the nearby village of Orciano di Pesaro.
World War 2 had a big impact on this area. Many villages have a memorial of some sort to those lost in war. Mondavio's was a dramatic statue on the road towards the village.
The historic entrance into the villages is usually a ramp through a tower. Some of these ramps can still be used by vehicles; the one in Mondavio has posts to prevent cars from using it.
This is Anne inside the tunnel.
On the right side (as seen in the above photographs) inside the tunnel is the entrance into La Rocca Museum (see other page for more information). Continuing through the tunnel brings you to a little piazza (Piazza Giovanni della Rovere) that is almost connected to a second piazza (Piazza Giacomo Matteotti).
Our Airbnb was to the right in the above photo. Looking back at the piazza from the street in front of our rental shows a bicycling club getting ready to head out. Biking is very popular in Italy, and we saw many groups out on the country roads. This is definitely good exercise, since most areas are very hilly. Probably not coincidentally, when we were here in 2018 there was also a bike club in Mondavio. This photo also gives a good idea of how tall the city wall is.
In that second piazza (Piazza Giacomo Matteotti) the awning is for the local bar.
Most mornings our language instructors went to the bar (caffe) for coffees. Paul had his coffee in our rental. We did go to the bar for Cioccolata Calda (hot chocolate, Italian style).
Our language school, a restaurant, and an elementary school all share a different plaza. There is a grand old tree here.
It is amazing that a tree this large can grow in the city, because the plaza is high. We don't know how deep the soil is for the tree. Here is the view from the wall behind the tree. We parked our rental car in this area; it was a quarter mile walk from the car to our Airbnb.
Looking back at this same playground and parking area from the street, the wall looks very low. However, there is another inside wall that is tall; the previous picture was at the top of that interior wall. There is a street between the houses and the exterior wall, but it was closed off for construction while we were there. At least today, this section of the wall does not seem to have a lot of defensive options. However, there is a natural drop-off here (on the right side of the road) that would have made it easier to defend.
Other sections relied on very tall walls. And some areas had defensive towers. These towers are typically round, because a round wall is more likely to deflect a blow than a flat surface. When there are multiple towers, they are typically placed so that bow shots from the towers can completely cover the area in between.
Going back inside the village, we of course visited the church and tried to light a candle. We say tried because we were not successful in actually getting one to light for us.
Walking around inside the old city center is easier than driving because most of the so-called roads are very narrow. This next picture shows Anne on the road that our Airbnb is on; the bedroom window is over the road behind her. Francesco actually drove up this road when they came to visit us one day. Unfortunately the section in front of the Airbnb is closed off because of work on the house next door, so Francesco had to back his car up the entire length of this narrow street.
Here is another example of the narrow streets. This house is on a small area that opens up near the city wall, and they have a pomegranate tree.
In addition to the fairly common potted plants in front of houses, many also had cute mail slots or decorative knockers on the doors.
As mentioned above, we parked outside of the city walls. There is parking inside the city center, but it requires a special permit. This particular parking area is just outside where we had our school. The small white sign on a wall in the center is the back-entrance to the school. (We entered from the plaza with the large tree shown above.)
Many houses have small balconies. This one was probably added in 1900.
Have you heard of the Ape Car? 'Ape' means bee in Italian. It is basically a 3-wheeled version of a Vespa scooter, with a truck bed added for good measure. They are small but utilitarian. This one looks to be a very new model.
The final two photographs on this page are of the view from Mondavio. Rolling hills of agriculture leading to other Medieval villages and the mountains (or the sea, depending on what direction you are looking) is very typical of Le Marche.
Updated December 2023