Osimo

Osimo is a hill town in the province of Ancona, settled by the Piceni people from around the 9th century BC on the hill of Osimo and on nearby Monte San Pietro. The Romans took the area during their conquest of Picenum from 173 BC and founded Vetus Auximum as a fortress settlement. Beneath the town lies an extensive network of tunnels and caves cut into the sandstone — the Grotte di Osimo — used over roughly 2,500 years for defense, storage, and shelter, with carvings and religious symbolism left by later occupants including Franciscan monks who used sections for silent retreat. On the town's highest point stands the Cattedrale di San Leopardo, a Romanesque-Gothic cathedral with a 13th-century sculpted portal, an old crypt, and a 16th-century bronze font.

Osimo shares the Osimo-Castelfidardo railway station, on the Adriatic coastal line along the SS16, with the neighboring town of Castelfidardo; the hilltop centre itself is some distance from the station and reached by local bus or road.

The hilltop historic centre is walkable; getting up from the surrounding lowlands requires a climb or a short drive.

The Cattedrale di San Leopardo, on the town's highest point, is a Romanesque-Gothic cathedral with a sculpted 13th-century portal, an old crypt, and a 16th-century bronze font. Beneath the town, the Grotte di Osimo are a network of sandstone tunnels and caves cut over roughly 2,500 years, used successively by the Piceni, Romans, and later medieval and Franciscan occupants, with carvings and religious symbolism surviving from several periods; the Grotte del Cantinone section is noted for crosses and other religious carvings.