Riviera del Conero beyond the beach: what to do in Sirolo and Numana when you get out of the water

You can't drive to the Due Sorelle. You can't even walk there: the descent from Passo del Lupo is closed off because of landslide risk. You get there only from the sea, by boat from Numana. Two white sea stacks, pale pebbles, water that doesn't look like the Adriatic. When a beach defends itself this well, there's a reason.

The reason is called Monte Conero: 572 metres of limestone dropping straight into the water, the only coastal peak on the Adriatic between Trieste and the Gargano. Since 1987 it has been a Regional Park. Sirolo and Numana sit on its slopes, and this guide gives you what you came for — the beaches — then takes you where the Riviera is at its best: out of the water.

The beaches, straight up

Due Sorelle, as we said. Ferry boats leave from the port of Numana, by reservation and in season (roughly June to September), and the crossing takes about half an hour. In high season booking ahead is not advice, it's a condition. If you paddle, you can reach it by canoe or SUP from Numana, Sirolo or Portonovo. If you're thinking of hiking down via the Passo del Lupo trail, don't: it's forbidden, and the ban exists because that cliff face really does crumble.

Mezzavalle is the free beach for those willing to earn it: you get down only on foot, via two trails starting from the Conero provincial road, about twenty minutes of steep descent. Real shoes, not flip-flops. In exchange: no rows of umbrellas, pale pebbles and a long stretch of wild coast. Just remember that whatever you walk down, you walk back up — in the five o'clock heat.

San Michele and Sassi Neri are the comfortable version of the adventure: from Sirolo you walk down in twenty to thirty minutes through the pine forest. The two beaches are joined, one flowing into the other along the shore. It's the right choice if you're staying in the village and want to do everything without a car.

Then there's the bay of Portonovo, on the Ancona side. Here the sea shares the stage with a building: Santa Maria di Portonovo, a small Romanesque church built by Benedictine monks in the 11th century, set on a rocky spur above the water. White stone, sea behind, mountain above. Worth the detour even on a cloudy day.

When you get out of the water

In the evening, Sirolo changes trade. The village sits on top of the cliff and its piazzetta opens onto the sea like a balcony: you have dinner, wander the lanes of the old centre, and wait for the sky to do its work over the Adriatic. You don't need a plan. You need an outdoor table and no hurry.

In Numana the ritual is called the Costarella: the stairway — today Via IV Novembre — connecting the upper village to the port. Fishermen once walked down it at dawn with their nets on their shoulders; today you walk it, between houses of Conero stone and flower-covered railings, reaching the port at aperitivo time. It's short, it's steep, and it's the piece of Numana you'll remember.

On the third afternoon, when your skin asks for a break from the salt, there are the trails: the Conero Park counts eighteen of them, among holm oaks and views that open onto the sea from above. You don't need to be a hiker; you need to start early or in the late afternoon and carry water.

Take home something made with your hands

Here's the idea that changes a holiday: instead of yet another shelf souvenir, a couple of hours in a workshop with a local Maker. You knead, shape, get it wrong, do it again — and you go home with an object you made yourself, plus the story of how you made it. The Marche is a land of workshops and crafts: a hands-on class is the most honest way to meet them, far better than a shop window. And it works even when it rains, which at the seaside is no small thing.