Offida sits on a ridge in the southern Marche, a small walled town of brick and stone looking across rolling hills towards the Adriatic in one direction and the Monti Sibillini in the other. In the arcaded town hall on the main square hides one of the region's many jewel-box theatres, the Serpente Aureo, the Golden Serpent, with its horseshoe of boxes, gilded decoration and painted ceiling. The Marche has dozens of these little opera houses, built when every proud town wanted its own stage, and this one is among the prettiest, small enough that you feel you are in someone's very ornate living room.
Offida is also famous for lace. Women here have worked bobbin lace, merletto a tombolo, for centuries, and you may still see them on doorsteps, bobbins clicking, turning out delicate patterns. At the end of town, the Gothic church of Santa Maria della Rocca stands on a rocky spur, its brick bulk and crypt frescoes giving a sense of the place's medieval importance. The local wines carry the town's name: Offida Pecorino and Offida Passerina whites and robust Rosso Piceno reds, and the carnival in February is a lively, ancient tradition.
The riding in this part of the Piceno is a constant roller coaster of small ridges and valleys, the roads climbing to hilltop towns and dipping into river valleys planted with vines and olives. Bends are frequent but rarely extreme, surfaces are mostly decent with some rough stretches, and traffic is light outside the busy valley roads near the coast. The views shift constantly between the sea and the mountains, and in late spring, when the fields are green and the poppies are out, the landscape is gorgeous. Winter brings fog in the valleys.
There is fuel in Offida and in the larger towns in the Tronto valley below; Ascoli Piceno, with its travertine squares, is a short ride away. Stop for olive all'ascolana, stuffed and fried olives that are the local snack, and a glass of Pecorino in one of the bars on the square. The theatre is not always open, but it can sometimes be visited, and it is worth asking at the town hall if the doors are shut.