Recently, large publications that send writers out to a particular foreign destination for a week every year or two have taken to the practice of calling Le Marche "the next Tuscany." It is hard to tell what they mean. It's not crowded with English speakers, the landscape is very different, the shutters are mostly brown instead of green. The food, the pasta shapes--all different. Even the sea is different.

If you like smaller towns and the slow rhythms of the rural life: Le Marche offers much to experience. The northern Marche can be "done" by a trip down the Metauro River Valley, passing towns like Mercatello, Urbino, and heading out to the Roman town of Fano on the Adriatic coast. You might do it in a week. You won't be bored if you take two or three.