Frontino

River pebbles designing streets, towers and castle walls. Frontino is the smallest municipality in the province of Pesaro and Urbino and one of the most beautiful villages in Italy, awarded the the orange flag by the Italian Touring Club for the excellence and quality of its tourism.

Considered a sentinel of Montefeltro, it is in a panoramic position, close to a picturesque rocky spur in front of Monte Carpegna, overlooking the green valley of the Mutino River that is immersed in the Sasso Simone and Simoncello Nature Park.

An ancient and controversial border castle between the Malatesta from Rimini and the Montefeltro from Urbino, it preserves the towers and the rugged walls, memories and heritage of epic medieval battles. Inside it is the Palazzo Malatesta, from whose basements there is an underground path that once led to the mill outside the walls. Protected by a watchtower and defensive tower, the mill (known as Ponte Vecchio) guaranteed the supply of bread and flour to the castle during sieges, today it has been carefully restored and houses the Bread Museum, a place where one can taste and buy typical local products.

In the heart of Frontino the religious treasures of the past overlap with modern sculptures perfectly integrated into the territory. The church of St. Peter and St. Paul encloses the baroque school painting “Madonna con Bambino", while the fountain by Franco Assetto is not far away. The famous sculptor of Turin, the forerunner of pop art and inspiration for the baroque ensemble art movement, has donated many of his works to the area, exhibited in the museum bearing his name.

Outside the historical centre there are traces of medieval splendour alternating with austere religious buildings. Like the hermitage of Saint Jerome from the fifteenth century and, in the west, surrounded by a thick forest, the Franciscan monastery of Montefiorentino. According to tradition it was founded by St. Francis in 1213 and is one of the largest convents of the Marche region. The complex includes a small cloister and conserves the chapel of the Counts of Oliva, built in 1484, a real masterpiece of Renaissance art attributed to Francesco De Simone Ferrucci from Fiesole. There is also the splendid altarpiece with a carved frame by Giovanni Santi, father of Raffaello, and a fresco attributed to Evangelista da Piandimeleto

The monastery of Montefiorentino today is the cornerstone of the national literary prize "Frontino-Montefeltro": a prestigious award each year awarded to the leading writers of the Marche by a qualified jury of experts once chaired by Carlo Bo.  The area hosts the black truffle festival in August and the bean festival in September.