Every design for Civitanova Marche

Greek ships once used the mouth of the Chienti as a landing place, and the river's Greek name, Kleos, meant the glorious one. Civitanova Marche grew up beside it on the Adriatic, south-east of Ancona: first as Cluana, a settlement of the Piceni, and later as a small Roman village on a hill near the sea, the place now called Civitanova Alta.

What sets it apart is the way it is split between hill and shore. The hilltop town and the harbour town below, Porto Civitanova, were separate municipalities for a time before being joined again, and the town hall moved down to the coast. The land is divided the same way: the southern districts lie on the floodplain of the Chienti, while to the north the hills rise in the comb-like ridges typical of the Marche, from the beach at Lido Cluana up past Villa Conti. Today it is a busier town than Macerata, its own provincial capital.

Growing up here means knowing both, the sea at the end of the street and the old town on the hill, and the map still holds them together.