Marches (the only region in Italy whose name is plural, and seems to be of Longobard origin) is made up of the capital Ancona and the provinces of Macerata, Ascoli Piceno and Pesaro and Urbino.

The civilization of the Piceni inhabited the hinterlands while the Gauls inhabited the coast.
In the 1st century B.C. , the region was under Roman domination, whose empire was divided into various territories subjected to the influence of the barbaric invasions and to the Eastern Roman Empire. From the 7th century, the Longobards occupied the southern part of the region, while the coast between Ancona and Rimini was a territory of the Exarchate of Ravenna. Both territories were then annexed to the Vatican (9th century)

During the empire of the Ottoni dynasty (10th century), the region was divided into various territories called “Marches”, governed by autonomous signiorities until the 16th century. The Vatican, during this period, tried, with the cardinal Egidio Albornoz, to keep the region united and under its power.

From that moment on, the region’s history parallels the one on the Vatican. Only in 1860 did the region finally establish its independence from the Vatican. The “new” region was then annexed to the Reign of Italy thanks to the intervention of the troops from Piedmont and to the plebiscite that gave the title of king of Italy to Vittorio Emanuele II.