Stay in Le Marche

Why Le Marche?

Finding our apartments in Cupra Alta in the newly renovated stately house, home to the region's Cardinal during the 17th century, was pure serendipity.

We - Maureen (Mo) Harter and Angela Neustatter - are two longstanding friends with a lot in common . We both have grown-up children, a desire for a retreat from our busy London lives and a love of Italy.

The first step was deciding to buy together - Mo is a widow and my partner who is Dutch already has a place in Holland and felt that was enough responsibility. We looked at plenty of properties first, some delightful but in the wrong location or needing total renovation - we didn't want to take that on.

Others were hideous wrecks and you wonder what possessed agents to show them. Then we saw the Cardinal Apartments. One is a three-bedroom penthouse with airy sunny rooms, high ceilings, beautiful oak beams and stunning views of the sea from almost every window.

The second is a two-bedroom ground floor flat with a substantial terrace and small garden overlooking hills and sea. They were far better than we had imagined being able to buy.

Mo Harter

But, as the saying goes, location is all. And Cupra Alta is enchanting. It is an early medieval hamlet of yellow and cream stone, crumbling fortifications, beautiful towers rising from hills that tumble down to the sea.

There are narrow cobbled streets, flowers and greenery everywhere and the vista on the ten-minute walk down a steeply curving road which Angela is contemplating rather than walking down here - to the seaside is glorious.

Fronting the sea is a charming small town, Cupra Marittima, a vacation spot favoured by the Italians.

We love to stride along the beach - generally fairly empty apart from July and August - and (above) we were paddling in October with the sun hot enough to go around in tee-shirts until November at least.

Most evenings we have a happy hour glass or so of one of the delicious local wines - here is Mo buying a Verdiccio di Jesi at the Vinea cellar where they have a large selection of regional wines .Vinea is found in the beautiful, hilly medieval town of Offida.

Having installed state-of-the-art modern kitchens we enjoy cooking in the apartments. We buy fresh pastas from the Spinosi delicatessen in the piazza at the bottom of the steps in Cupra Marittima, along with a pot of their delicioso tomato sugo.

If we are staying in the Terrace Apartment we will sit around the table on the terrace watching the sky turn from sunshine to twilight. In the Penthouse we throw open all the windows, gather around the chunky oak table and eat dinner to stunning views of the sky fading from day to night in tones of blue, purple, pink and orange.

Angela Neustatter

We have furnished the apartments with contemporary leather sofas, decorative chairs and art work gathered from home as well as bought locally, aiming to make the apartments as comfortable and stylish as our London homes.

Having bought the apartments we had a moment of trepidation: would we get bored of the place. In fact we both find ourselves loving and enjoying Cupra and the environs more with each visit. Happily, our grown children share our enthusiasm.

Our visits are as frequent as we can manage and we plan to take extended times here. Angela ,a journalist and author, intends to come and work here. For Mo, a keen painter, the views are the thing.

And - as Mo says regularly! - even a long weekend in this place where the pace of life is gloriously leisurely, can feel like a much longer break.

On this website we have put together the information we wanted, and that we believe will help you enjoy the relaxation, the sea and countryside, the history, the festivals, the cuisine and the wines of this region.

And we are very happy to rent our apartments to those who, we hope, will share our passion for this undiscovered place.

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Cardinal apartments in Cupra Marittima

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Why Le Marche?

Historic Towns

Renting the Apartments

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