City (pop. 100 000 or so) and province (postal/car number plate abbreviation AN) in
Italy, regional capital of the
Marche, on the
Adriatic coast north of the Cònero peninsula.
Like many Italian port cities, Ancona has never really recovered from Allied bombing in the second world war and subsequent earthquakes, and exudes an impression of sun-bleached griminess to the visitor, especially in the harbour and station area; however, the natives seem quite a friendly bunch on the whole. It is however an important transport hub, on the Adriatica motorway and the parallel Bologna-Pescara-Bari railway line with a secondary east-west line to Rome, plus ferry connections to Croatia, Albania and Greece. There is a small airport at Falconara used for internal and a few charter flights.
Tourists tend to pass through rapidly, but there is more or less continuous beach development north of the city and smaller, more pictureque resorts around the foot of Monte Cònero to the south. The relatively untouristed inland areas of the province are full of little walled hilltop villages.
The province of Ancona mainly extends inland; its towns include Loreto, Jesi, Senigallia and Fabriano.