Corinaldo Walls and Pozzo della Polenta

Corinaldo is a hilltop village in the province of Ancona in northern Marche, counted among the Borghi piu belli d'Italia, the official list of Italy's most beautiful villages, and famous for possessing one of the most complete and best-preserved circuits of medieval walls in the region. The fifteenth-century brick ramparts, with their towers and gates, still encircle the old town entirely, and walking or photographing along them gives sweeping views over the surrounding hills. Within the walls, the village's emblem is the Pozzo della Polenta, a well set midway down La Piaggia, the steep and picturesque staircase of 109 steps that climbs through the heart of the old town, tied to a humorous local legend that gives the village its nickname. The most rewarding photographs combine the brick walls and towers against the sky, the long perspective of the stepped Piaggia lane with the well as its centrepiece, and the textures of the historic streets, ideally framed with an arch, lamp or flowering window rather than shot flat. Because the staircase and the walls run between high brick buildings, the soft, even light of the golden hour and the warm end of the afternoon is the most flattering, lifting the brick without the harsh contrast of midday, while overcast days give clean, glare-free colour. Spring brings flowers to the lanes and is the prettiest season, and weekdays are far quieter than summer weekends. The streets and walls are public and free, and most shots are easily handheld, with drone flight over the village requiring authorisation. Built on a hill, the village involves a sustained climb up the Piaggia and the sloping lanes, but the intact walls and the famous well make Corinaldo one of the most characterful small-town subjects in the Marche.