Urbino’s fame as ideal city has lasted through the centuries. To the extent that in recent years, the city centre was classed a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I don’t have a clear idea of what this city, this island,
this separate world has meant over the centuries.
Yet it is here that the heart of Italy beats;
there is something that has been miraculously created over past centuries, which can be summed up now,
symbolised by the Ducal Palace. Around this idea, which is an idea of art,
an idea of beauty and poetry, around this core, something developed autonomously
– with the intervention of many people, of the many generations that followed –
and it continues to belong to the kingdome of art,
poetry, and intelligence: in one word, the soul”.
Carlo Bo, La città dell’anima