Fossombrone

Fossombrone is a town in the province of Pesaro e Urbino, in the Marche region, on the Metauro river where it emerges from the Furlo Gorge. It stands roughly two kilometres from the site of the Roman colony of Forum Sempronii, founded around 130 BCE along the Via Flaminia and abandoned by the 5th or 6th century AD, after which the medieval town was refounded on a more easily defended hill nearby. In the Renaissance the town passed to Federico III da Montefeltro and later to the della Rovere dukes, under whom it grew further. The archaeological area of Forum Sempronii preserves remains of a Roman domus with mosaic floors, stretches of the original Via Flaminia paving, and a large bath complex, and is the town's main historical draw today.

Fossombrone no longer has passenger rail service — the Fano–Urbino railway line that once ran through the town closed in 1987. Access today is by road, on the route linking Fano on the coast with Urbino inland, which regional buses also cover.

The town centre is small and walkable; the Forum Sempronii archaeological area lies a short distance outside it.

The Forum Sempronii archaeological area preserves the remains of the Roman colony that gave rise to modern Fossombrone, including a domus with mosaic floors, an original stretch of Via Flaminia paving, and a large bath complex with more than twenty rooms. The historic hill town itself, refounded in the early Middle Ages after the Roman settlement was abandoned, retains its Renaissance-era character from the periods it spent under Federico da Montefeltro and the della Rovere dukes.