Set your alarm early, and a tableau of sculpted hills, steeply angled fields, scattered oak forests and medieval villages will materialize slowly from the gloom. As the sun eases slowly over the horizon, the vista will conjure up all the magic of a Renaissance painting. 

Setting out before sunrise through the streets of San Ginesio – a delightful stone-built township in the hills of Le Marche – I could not have timed it better. As I reached the town’s medieval walls, hazy sunshine illuminated a landscape that could have been plucked from a fresco by Giotto, Raphael or Piero della Francesca.