Getting to Casa Matita
By Air
The nearest airports are Ancona and Pescara. Ancona is about an hour and a half, Pescara about two hours drive.
Other options are Rome or Bologna, then either hire a car there, or get the train to Ancona and hire a car from Hertz opposite the station.
By Train and Bus
There are excellent rail services to Ancona from Milan, Rome, Bologna and Venice, and also from Pescara,
and there are local trains that will take you closer to Santa Vittoria – Porto San Giorgio and Pedaso
are the two nearest stations, buses only from Porto san Giorgio.
There are through buses from Porto san Giorgio to Servigliano, though sometimes
you have to change at Fermo, it’s the Porto san Giorgio or Fermo to Amandola service. Buy your bus ticket from the tobacconists on Porto san Giorgio station – no tickets purchasable on the bus.
From Servigliano there are buses to Santa Vittoria, that sometimes connect with the Amandola bus.
For this stretch you buy a ticket from the bus driver.
There are also buses between Santa Vittoria and Ascoli Piceno railway station. Trains run from Ancona to Ascoli Piceno.
The main problem with the buses is finding out when they run, for they are different on schooldays and
the timetables seem to change frequently.
There’s no consistent website that provides information. It’s doable, but requires persistence and possibly a little time.
There is a description of a journey by bus from Porto san Giorgio to Santa Vittoria that Dave wrote in 2011,
on two web pages:
School Bus From Fermo and
Small bus up the hill.
Whether these particular buses are still running, one cannot know.
By Car
Many different routes to choose through France and Switzerland or France and Germany and Austria to get to Italy.
Wherever visitors are approaching from, they are likely to get on to the Adriatic coast road
(the A14 Autostrada or the much slower SS16 main road). There are then two routes to Santa Vittoria.
Car Option 1
The easiest route is to leave the Autostrada at the Pedaso exit, keep right after going through the toll booths
and turn right onto the SS16
into Pedaso. At traffic lights in the centre of Pedaso, (signposts point to lots of places), turn right.
Keep on the same road for
some miles. It will swing round to the right, and not long after that there’s a bridge over the Aso River.
This bridge collapsed in 2014 and until it is repaired it is blocked off by barriers. Traffic has to turn left.
route while the bridge is down
Turn left immediately before the road closed signs (you can do this even if the bridge is
reopened
as this option is marginally shorter – the left turn is signposted to Carassai) and carry along a straight road,
straight on over a crossroads and carry on
until the road reaches an oblique T-junction.
At this junction, turn right, over the river, and take the first left.
route when the bridge is open again
If the collapsed bridge has been repaired you could cross it and carry on through the villages
Rubianello and Valmir, and
you will come to a village called Piane di Ortezzano. In the village the road swings round to the left
and shortly after there are two adjacent junctions
to the right, the first goes to the main village of Ortezzano and the second is signposted to various places including,
usually,
Santa Vittoria, take this second turn.
both options get to this point
Thus there were two ways to get to the same place, going up opposite sides of the river,
from the left-hand side of the river you’ve crossed the river and turned left,
and from the right-hand side of the river you’ve turned right shortly before the river bridge.
There’s a patch of bare land on your right after you’ve turned,
on which there’s often a mobile shop and there is also a café there by that patch.
Some way along this road will pass a sign that says you are in the Sibillini Mountain region.
You can see the mountains in the distance ahead of you.
You pass a white house on your left and not long after that a road joins you coming in from the left,
then you’re in a village called Ponte Maglio.
At the end of Ponte Maglio take a small right turn signposted to Santa Vittoria.
This road winds up and up and eventually you will see Santa Vittoria ahead of you. Keep following the road until you
reach the walls of Santa Vittoria above you on your left.
if you are following Google Maps
If you are following Google Maps up from Pedaso, you are taken a quicker route, but it needs
a bit more attention.
Google Maps gives you the two options either side of the river Aso, one is the same as above, the other brings you round
into Valmir and Piane di Ortezzano, similar to what happens when the bridge gets repaired.
Then when the two options join you
carry on as above, and you absolutely must keep an eye open for the white house on the left.
Very soon after the white house the road bears left on a bend, with a black and white zig-zag warning sign of the bend.
There’s a small
road going off on the right by the zig-zag sign, not signposted. Turn right here, there’s a sign at the entrance to the road saying
strada pericolosa al transito – road dangerous to use – that is
because it is prone to subsidence and landslides.
Follow this road up some steep hairpin bends to a T-junction. Turn right at the T-junction – you can see Santa Vittoria to your left after having turned.
Soon you come to another T-junction, turn left and follow the road up more hairpins to a T-junction below the
walls of Santa Vittoria. Turn right here so the walls are on your left.
This route that Google maps gives as the main choice is quicker and more picturesque, just needs a bit more paying attention.
the Google Maps route and the signposted one are now joined
The first entrance into town, on the left,
has a no through road sign, don’t take that,
take the second entrance, on the left, just beyond Hotel Farfense.
Car Option 2
You can also approach Santa Vittoria from the Porto San Giorgio exit of the autostrada.
You will need to follow the signs for Fermo, and then for the SS210 signposted Amandola. This part of the route is
difficult to decribe as it winds through the town of Fermo, just follow the signs.
After Fermo the road passes through one ribbon development after another, then after it swings left and crosses a flat river bridge (remains of a previous bridge long since collapsed down below you on your left)
you come into Servigliano, you’ll see the gates of the old town on your left.
Follow the walls of the old town by turning left and left again and opposite the gate to the old town that you pass
after having turned left twice, there’s a right turn
signposted to Santa Vittoria.
You will wind up the hill
for several miles, through a village called Curetta, until you come into Santa Vittoria.
The road into the old town goes straight on from the road you are on, while the by-pass road bears left.
Drive into the old town.
All options
When you arrive at the old town, there is a roughly triangular piazza, Piazza della Republica.
On the left is an old gateway through the clock tower into the main street and on the right is a narrow street,
via Roma, leading uphill.
Bear right and go up via Roma to the top and follow the hairpin bend to the left. This will bring you out at the top of via Sabina,
just above our house. You can park anywhere round here provided you’re not blocking the road,
or carry on round to the
right where there is a small car park to the left of the church.
As you walk down via Sabina from where you’ve parked the car, Casa Matita is No. 50 on the right.