Mondaino

This village inside the castle will surprise and excite you, with its elegant semicircular square: a film set and the backdrop for engaging historical re-enactments, with a strong musical imprint due to the presence of a band and the Galanti brothers’ accordion factory.

Mondaino is surrounded by unspoilt greenery, made up of scrubland and countryside, where fallow deer used to graze, that can still be seen in the area today and after which the village was named.

Here the Etruscans, in their expansion towards the plain, overlapped with the Umbri. Then the Romans stemmed the invasion of the Gauls from which the myth of the origin of the country linked to the figure of Diana, goddess of hunting and the woods derives. Mondaino assumed considerable geo-political importance when the Malatesta family decided to make it a stronghold on the border with the lands of the Montefeltro family.

In Mondaino you can enjoy nature, art and culture: with the Paleontological Museum rich in fossils and the Arboretum, a magical place a few kilometres from the centre. The Arboreto–Teatro Dimora is a unique facility in Italy, it is not only an ordinary theatre, but much more: it is a theatrical centre; a home with two guesthouses which welcome visitors interested in art, communication and nature, within a nine hectare-park with about 6,000 plants.

And there is no shortage of products from the soil: especially in autumn when truffles to which the end-of-November fair is dedicated are harvested. There is fresh olive-oil and from special underground pits precious pecorino cheese called “fossa” is extracted: the extraordinary result of unique and suggestive processing and conservation.

Every year in August the historical “Palio del Daino” event takes place in Mondaino. Remarkable philological accuracy and attention to detail have made this Palio one of the most successful national events, recognised by the European Consortium of Historical Reenactments: four summer evenings dedicated to the historical reconstruction of ancient crafts, arts, shows and challenges between districts.