Urbania has had three names. It began as Castel delle Ripe, became Casteldurante in the thirteenth century, and was renamed in 1636 when Pope Urban VIII took over the duchy and gave it his own. In the Renaissance it was a pottery town, famous for majolica, the tin-glazed painted earthenware that Duke Guidobaldo and his court sent as gifts around Europe, and the ceramics still sold in the shops carry on that tradition. The theatre that bears the name of Bramante, the great architect who was born in nearby Fermignano, stands in the town centre, a small, intimate house with tiers of boxes in the Italian manner, and the town itself is a small walled place on a bend of the Metauro river, with brick arcades and a handsome ducal palace.
Urbania also has some stranger attractions. In the church of the Dead, a small chapel, a group of naturally mummified bodies, dating from the eighteenth century and found by chance in the nineteenth, sits in glass cases behind the altar, and visitors usually leave quiet. On a happier note, the town claims to be the home of the Befana, the old witch who brings gifts to Italian children on the night of 5 January, and holds a big festival in her honour at Epiphany, when thousands of children fill the streets.
The riding in the Marche hinterland is first class. The valley of the Metauro winds through the Apennine foothills, with roads that climb through oak woods and open ridges, and the landscape is a patchwork of golden fields and clay-coloured villages. The Furlo gorge, a spectacular limestone pass where a Roman road tunnel still survives, lies a short way to the north-east. Surfaces are generally good, with the usual patches and gravel, and the traffic is light outside summer weekends. Spring is lovely, with wildflowers, and autumn brings truffles and mist.
Urbania has about five and a half thousand people, with fuel, bakeries and a supermarket, and Sant'Angelo in Vado, a few kilometres up the valley, is known for its white truffle fair in autumn. For lunch, order a plate of tagliatelle with truffle in season, or crescia, the local flatbread stuffed with ham and cheese. The coffee in the main square is excellent, and the arcades give shade.