Ascoli Piceno, in the Marche region, seems to be, in a way, just another Italian city. There are two large squares where locals watch the days go by, sit in cafes to watch people pass by and do their business. walk nocturnal. There are centuries-old churches and even ancient ruins dating back to the Roman period.
As in many italian cities, the center was built in medieval period. And, like the others, it was beautifully preserved.
But take a walk, especially at night, and you will notice a big difference: Ascoli Piceno seems to shine.
During the day, the buildings and even the sidewalk stones seem to shine with sunlight. And at night, they shine under the moonlight. The towers, porticos and street lamps reflect perfectly on the ground, making the city center look like a mirage.
This is due to the fact that the local Ascoli stone, with which the entire historic center was built, is the travertine: a precious stone, similar to marble, that glows a beige color in midday light, shades of pink at sunset, and sparkles under street lights at night.
Today, travertine – and Italian travertine in particular – it’s expensive. They are commonly used in bathrooms and on floors, rather than throughout the home.
But the travertine in Ascoli's buildings and sidewalk stones was laid long before it became an extremely precious material. Many of the great buildings you see today date back to the Roman period.
In fact, many were recycled from Roman buildings.
“It’s all recycled, we dismantled the Roman monuments to build the medieval city”, says Lella Palumbi, a tourist guide in Ascoli, to CNN.
A sedimentary form of limestone, travertine is formed when hot springs deposit calcium carbonate minerals. It is famously porous, almost elastic, thanks to external organisms such as algae, moss, bacteria, and often, fossils.
Os Romans They were already using it for most of their important buildings and monuments in Rome. Using quarries in Tivoli, near the city, they even nicknamed the stone “lapis tiburtinus”, or “Tivoli stone”, which was later transformed into “travertine”.
“Ascoli is the only city in the world made entirely from travertine,” says Stefano Papetti, director of the city's five museums in his role as scientific consultant for the city's collections.
“It’s different from other Italian artistic cities which were mostly built in brick and then covered with travertine or marble. But here, whether from the Roman, Medieval, Renaissance or other periods, all the buildings are made with solid blocks of travertine, extracted from the mountains around Ascoli”, he says proudly.
The stone that saved the city
Travertine has another particular quality that gives Ascoli its beauty. When initially extracted it is relatively soft, allowing it to be carved – one of the reasons why Ascoli's buildings have ornately carved doors and facades – many Renaissance houses even have mottos carved into the doors.
Then, through the chemical process of oxidation, it solidifies into stone so resistant that Ascoli's buildings have withstood several earthquakes over the centuries.
It was neither destroyed by a massive earthquake in 1703 nor seriously hit by the 2016 earthquake that destroyed Amateur, an hour away.
Of course Amatrice was closer to the epicenter both times – it was also destroyed in 1703. But the terrain is also different – Ascoli is more stable than other nearby areas. But, says Papetti, “stone helps make buildings more stable.”
Palumbi agrees: “The Romans were aware of earthquakes and built Ascoli to be resistant. They had better engineers than today.
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