Marche

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**Regione Marche**


Capital	Ancona
President	Gian Mario Spacca (Democracy is Freedom - Daisy-Union)
Provinces	5
Comuni	246
Area	9,694 km²
- Ranked	15th (3.2 %)
Population (2006 est.) - Total - Ranked - Density	1,528,809 6th (2.6 %) 158/km²

Map highlighting the location of Marche in Italy

1 Geography
2 History
3 Economy
4 Politics
5 Demographics
6 External links

[edit] Geography

The Marche (plural, originally le marche de Ancona = the Marches of Ancona) are a region of central Italy, bordering Emilia-Romagna north, Tuscany to the north-west, Umbria to west, Abruzzo and Latium to the south and the Adriatic Sea to the east. Except for the river valleys and the often very narrow coastal strip, the land is hilly. In the 19th century a railroad from Bologna to Brindisi linked the Marche along the coast-line of the entire territory: inland, the mountainous nature of the region even today allows little communication north and south, except by rough roads over the passes.

The Marche is divided into five provinces:

[edit] History

The Marche was the ancient Picenum territory, conquered by the Romans in 2nd century BC. After the fallen of the Roman Empire, the region was invaded by the Goths. In Middle Ages the towns of Ancona, Fano, Pesaro, Rimini and Senigallia formed the byzantine Pentapolis. During the Reinassance the region was ruled by Malatesta and Montefeltro rival aristocratic families. From 1532 to 1860 the Marche was part of the Papal State.

[edit] Economy

In a traditional mezzadria system, under which products are equally divided between the owners and the cultivators of the land, the rather unproductive soil and difficult terrain was fairly highly cultivated. In modern times the Marche developed the industrial sectors of shoes, paper, furniture, shipbuilding. The port of Ancona was the only really good harbor, the other small harbors were used by fishing fleets: the Marche furnished a large contingent of sailors to the Italian navy.

[edit] Politics

The Marhce form, with Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Umbria, the italian "Red Quadrilateral", a zone strongly left-wing political oriented. At the April 2006 elections, the people of Marhce gave 55% of its votes to Romano Prodi.

[edit] Demographics

As of 2006, the Italian national institute of statistics ISTAT estimated that 81,890 foreign-born immigrants live in Marche, or the 5,3% of total regional population.