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Northeastern Tuscany : Overview & Top 10

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Arezzo’s province stretches from the thickly forested mountains of the Casentino in the north, down the northern arm of the Arno river valley, past the hamlet of Caprese where Michelangelo was born, to the wide Chiana Valley, the regional breadbasket. Aside from the happenstance of Michelangelo’s birthplace, artistically the province is dominated by two early Renaissance titans: Sansepolcro’s own Piero della Francesca in the province’s northern half, and, in the south, Cortona-born Luca Signorelli (1441–1523), whose fresco technique Michelangelo later studied avidly.

  • Morning

    Start at the Museo Archeologico Mecenate, a museum of corallino pottery and other ancient artifacts that stands on the former amphitheatre.

    Head up to Piazza Grande for a cappuccino at one of the cafés under Vasari’s Loggia. Admire the square’s Gothic and Renaissance palazzi before visiting Santa Maria della Pieve.

    Climb up past the Casa di Petrarca (the poet’s supposed house) to the Duomo and its masterful stained glass. On Thursday and Friday mornings you could first nip to the tiny Museo del Duomo to see paintings by Bartolomeo della Gatta, and Spinello and Parri Aretino.

    Wander back downhill for lunch at La Buca di San Francesco .

    Afternoon

    Having pre-booked (0575 900 404), head for the Piero works in San Francesco (see Arezzo’s San Francesco).

    Grab a heavenly gelato (icecream) from Caffè dei Costanti , and walk down Via Cavour to the Badia. Above the high altar (Vasari’s intended tomb) note the trompel’oeil “dome” (1702) painted by Baroque master of illusion Andrea Pozzo.

    Via Garibaldi leads past SS. Annunziata to the Museo Statale d’Arte Medievale e Moderna, a mix of Romanesque sculpture, majolica ceramics, and paintings by Parri Aretino, Bartolomeo della Gatta and Vasari.

  • Jeweller specializing in pieces from the 1920s to 1940s.

  • Cute boutique stuffed with wines, grappa and the health products of the Camáldolesi monks.

  • Cosy trattoria where you pay for what you drink of the house Chianti; the comfort food includes grifi e polenta (fatty veal stomach in polenta).

  • An Etruscan city, then ancient Roman pottery centre, Arezzo was later home to Guido Monaco, who invented modern musical notation in the 11th century, the poet Petrarch (1304–74) and Giorgio Vasari (1512–74), architect and author of the first art history text, Lives of the Artists .

    The town’s centre is the broad, sloping Piazza Grande. The bell-tower, façade and medieval Calendar reliefs of the 12th-century Santa Maria della Pieve are Lombard-Romanesque style, but the altarpiece (1320) is pure Sienese Gothic courtesy of Pietro Loren-zetti. The Duomo has excellent stained-glass windows by French master Guillaume de Marcillat, and a fresco by Piero della Francesca. The 14th-century San Francesco is graced with Piero’s recently restored Legend of the True Cross (1448–66).

  • Italy’s top monthly antiques market. Over 600 dealers crowding the Piazza Grande and streets around it.

  • Part locals’ bar, part tourist shop hawking honey, preserves, biscuits, meats, spices and olive oils.

  • Lively café in a 14th-century palazzo right in the historic centre. It has a wonderful garden and terrace.

  • San Romulado established this Benedictine community in 1012, though the monastery is 15th century and the Vasari-decorated church 16th. One mile (1.5km) up a forest path lies the secluded hermitage (only men admitted), a tiny village of monkish cottages alongside a Baroque church.

  • Off Piazza del Municipio, Sant’Agostino has a trove of paintings, starring the 13th-century St Francis by Margheritone d’Arezzo, Gaddi’s Madonna and Child and Bartolomeo della Gatta’s St Francis Receiving the Stigmata .

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