The Villa Colloredo Mels is a Renaissance villa on the western edge of the old town, set in a large park and looking out across the open country toward the Apennines. The building was the country seat of a noble family from Friuli and was acquired by the comune in the 1980s; it now houses the Museo Civico, the town's civic museum.
The highlight is the collection of paintings by Lorenzo Lotto, the great Venetian who spent his last years working in the Marche. Four major Lotto altarpieces hang here, including the celebrated Annunciation (around 1534), with its famous startled cat fleeing across the floor as the angel arrives. A separate wing holds the Museo della Citta, with archaeological finds and a section on Beniamino Gigli, the tenor born in Recanati who rivalled Caruso on the great opera stages of the early twentieth century. Allow about ninety minutes for both museums together.