Urbino sits on the top of two hills and has not one level street: you are always climbing, and that is the first thing to know before parking. What you climb to see is the Palazzo Ducale, which Federico da Montefeltro had built in the middle of the fifteenth century and which looks nothing like a castle: it is a city inside the city, with the courtyard of honour, the inlaid studiolo the size of a cupboard, and the two little towers you see from the whole valley. Inside is the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, and inside the gallery is Piero della Francesca's Flagellation, which hangs in one room and is worth the journey on its own. Raphael was born here, and the house where he was born can be visited. The old town has been a UNESCO site since 1998, and it is one of the rare places where the Renaissance city is not a quarter but the whole town.
Sleeping
Stops and overnight stays
Urbino sits on the top of two hills and the centre is closed to traffic: the choice is between sleeping below and climbing, or squeezing into a car park on the edge.
Area sosta camper di via Pablo Neruda
via Pablo Neruda, 61029 Urbino (PU)
a free municipal area with a service point, drinking water and grey and black waste disposal. It is the one where we stayed. It sits barely two kilometres below the centre, and you go up into town in two ways: by bus, whose stop is right there, or on foot in twenty or twenty five minutes, all of it uphill. OpenStreetMap marks the waste drain a little further on, at 43.733614, 12.626895.
it is the car park attached to Porta Valbona, that is to the way into the old town: two hundred metres and you are inside, with no climbing at all. But the bays are of ordinary size and the manoeuvring is tight, so it works for a compact vehicle, under five or six metres, and not for a long one. No services.
services not recorded
Paying, about 10 to 18 euros for twenty four hours
Urbino is all uphill, and the streets of the centre are narrow and steep: you cannot take the vehicle in
The motorhome is left below: at the area on via Pablo Neruda, free and with a service point, and you go up by bus or on foot in twenty to twenty five minutes of climbing. Anyone with a short vehicle can instead go into Piazza Mercatale, two hundred metres from Porta Valbona
From the Palazzo Ducale to Raphael's house is three hundred metres, but uphill
The Fortezza Albornoz stands on the hill facing the palace, and is the point from which the whole town is photographed
Seeing
Sights
The palace is the day. The rest sits around it, within four hundred metres, and all of it either up or down. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
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Palazzo Ducale and Galleria Nazionale delle Marche
Museum · paid entry · 43.72420, 12.63615
open Tuesday to Sunday 8:30 to 19:15, with the ticket office closing at 18:15, and closed on Mondays except for the special afternoon openings, 15:00 to 19:00, which in 2026 run in June, July, August and September. Free under 18 and on the first Sunday of the month. Inside are Piero della Francesca's Flagellation, Raphael's Mute Woman and the panel of the Ideal City; Federico's studiolo, entirely in wood inlay, is the smallest room and the most remembered.
10 euros, 2 euros for European citizens between 18 and 25
the house where Raphael was born in 1483 and where his father Giovanni Santi had his workshop. From March to October it opens Monday to Saturday 9:00 to 13:00 and 15:00 to 19:00, Sundays and holidays 10:00 to 13:00 and 15:00 to 18:00; from November to February it does 9:00 to 14:00 on weekdays and keeps the holiday hours on Sunday. Last entry half an hour before closing, shut on 25 December and 1 January. The ticket price is not stated on the website: to be checked on the spot.
it stands next to the Palazzo Ducale, on the same square. The neoclassical front is nineteenth century, because the earlier cathedral came down in the earthquake of 1789.
on the facing hill, inside the parco della Resistenza. You do not go for the fortress but for what you see from there: the palace with its two little towers and the roofs of the town, which is the view everybody knows.
it stands in front of the Palazzo Ducale, on the square. The Renaissance marble doorway is of 1451, and the lunette above it is a copy: Luca della Robbia's terracotta original is inside the palace.
courses and concerts of early music in the churches and courtyards of the centre, with students arriving from half of Europe. Programme on the FIMA website.
This year's dates are not out yet
Festa dell'Aquilone
first Sunday in September
the ten quarters of Urbino compete to build the finest kite and fly it highest, on the slopes of the Cesane outside town. It has been done since 1955, the real contest is on the Sunday and the days before are spent preparing in the streets: it is a town festival and not an event, and you can tell by who runs it.
Festa del Duca
mid August
four days of Renaissance re-enactment in the old town, with costumed processions, flag throwers and courts modelled on Federico's. It has been going since 1982, and a town closed to traffic helps a great deal.
Remember
Useful tips
On Mondays the Palazzo Ducale is closed, and without the palace Urbino is half a town. If your day falls on a Monday, check first whether the special afternoon opening applies: in 2026 it runs from June to September, 15:00 to 19:00
Half a day is enough for the palace, but the gallery is large: anyone who looks at everything takes twice as long
You are always climbing. With children, or with knees in disorder, the round of the centre makes itself felt
The motorhome is left on via Pablo Neruda and you go up: the bus leaves from right there, and on foot it is twenty to twenty five minutes of climbing. Piazza Mercatale is very close to the gate, but the bays are of ordinary size and the manoeuvring is tight
Distances and times by road, measured with OSRM on OpenStreetMap data.
Looking
Urbino in photographs
30 shots from our visit. Tap one to see it large.
the Palazzo Ducale and the cathedral in the evening light, with the two little towers and the loggias between them, the dome and the bell tower on the leftPhoto: Fabio Demitri, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the town seen from above, photographed from a kite during the September festival, with the palace, the cathedral and the Mercatale among the roofsPhoto: KAP Jasa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the cathedral and the Palazzo Ducale on the hill in the low light, with the Apennines behindPhoto: Sandro Viro, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the front of the palace on Piazza Duca Federico, with the doors and windows framed in white stone repeating FE DVXPhoto: Enric, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the courtyard of honour, with the colonnade, the inscription running above the arches and the windows of the main floorPhoto: Julian Lupyan, Wikimedia Commons, CC0the fireplace of the Sala degli Angeli, with its frieze of putti dancing on a blue groundPhoto: Fabrizio Garrisi, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the inlaid door leaves between the Sala degli Angeli and the Throne Room, with figures above and architecture in perspective belowPhoto: Fabrizio Garrisi, Wikimedia Commons, CC0the Throne Room, with tapestries hung on the white walls and the lunette vaultPhoto: Enric, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Federico's studiolo, with the wooden inlays all round below and the portraits of famous men abovePhoto: Fabrizio Garrisi, Wikimedia Commons, CC0an inlay in the studiolo, with a basket of fruit and a squirrel on a painted-in-wood windowsillPhoto: sailko, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0Piero della Francesca's Flagellation, with Christ bound to the column under the portico and the three men in the foreground on the rightPhoto: Mongolo1984, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Raphael's La Muta, the portrait of a woman in green and red in its gilded framePhoto: Mongolo1984, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the panel of the Ideal City, with the round temple in the middle of the square and the palaces in perspective on either sidePhoto: Julian Lupyan, Wikimedia Commons, CC0the front of the little towers seen from below, with the three stacked loggias between the two towers and palms at their footPhoto: Julian Lupyan, Wikimedia Commons, CC0the little towers lit up at night, with the pale loggias between the two towersPhoto: Mongolo1984, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Latin plaque on the brick wall of the birthplace, recording that Raphael was born here in 1483Photo: FrDr, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0a room in Raphael's house, with the stone fireplace, the beamed ceiling and the wooden staircasePhoto: Elekes Andor, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0the cathedral on the square, with its white stone neoclassical front, the brick side with its portico and the dome abovePhoto: Terragio67, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the bell tower and the dome of the cathedral at sunset, above the brick housesPhoto: Julian Lupyan, Wikimedia Commons, CC0the nave of the cathedral, white and neoclassical, down to the high altarPhoto: Sottobosco90, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Fortezza Albornoz, with its brick walls among the trees of the parkPhoto: Giacomo Alessandroni, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the palace and the cathedral seen from the Fortezza Albornoz, above the roofs of the townPhoto: Stefano Sansavini, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the church of San Francesco between the town houses, with the arched portico in front and the pointed bell tower behindPhoto: Sottobosco90, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the slab in the floor of San Francesco covering the tomb of Giovanni Santi and Magia Ciarla, Raphael's parentsPhoto: Accurimbono, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Renaissance doorway of San Domenico, in white marble on the brick front, with the lunette above the doorPhoto: FrDr, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Luca della Robbia's glazed terracotta lunette, with the Virgin and Child between four saints on a blue groundPhoto: Simon Marmion, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the palace with its round bastion seen from the Mercatale car park, below Porta ValbonaPhoto: sailko, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0a street climbing between coloured houses, closed at the top by a brick arch with a sundialPhoto: Enric, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0a stepped alley between brick walls, running narrow downhillPhoto: FrDr, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0kites of coloured cloth hung in rows above Piazza della RepubblicaPhoto: Accurimbono, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
