Falerone, with a population of 1,318 and an area of  2,461 km2, is typical in its history.  The original Roman town of Falerio Picenus, built in the valley below around 29 BCE, was difficult to defend and was abandoned in the early Middle Ages for a fortified town on the hill, which also assumed a typical spine form.  The route along the ridge, the Corso Garibaldi, opens into a sequence of small squares containing the main civic and religious buildings.  Towards the southwest, the principal monument, the convent of San Francesco (founded as San Fortunato in the early 13th century) clearly reveals signs of its numerous transformations over the centuries. The church itself and the convent buildings face the Piazza della LIbertà, from which the best views of the surrounding landscape towards the Sibillini mountains can be obtained – a vista that also clearly reveals the effects of the sequence of earthquakes in 2016-17.