Sept 25 - Arezzo

 Sept 25 - Arezzo

We started off todays visit’s with a tour of ‘Casa Vasari’, the family home of Arezzo’s favourite son, the painter, art historian, and architect, Giorgio Vasari.  Best known for his "Lives of the Artists" a biography of the the most famous artists of the Renaissance, Vasari personally frescoed all of the walls and ceilings here, and, although some rooms are more elaborate than others, overall they’re pretty special. 

Unable to get into our next planned stop till this afternoon, we  took off for a walk around town with our first stop being the Piazza Grande.  Starting off as a medieval market place in the 13th century this attractive square is now the hub of the ‘old town’.  Similar in a way to Siena’s ‘square’, it’s surrounded by beautiful buildings, the groundwork is all redbrick, and there’s also a serious slope from one side to the other. It was a bit of fun watching the kids roll down the ‘hill’. 

The fortress on the edge of town was our next destination.  Built in the 1500’s by the Medici’s, it was then half demolished during one of their many local wars before being rebuilt.  Located at the highest point of the city it boasts some nice views over the city and the Arno Valley while also being used as a local public park.  At the moment there’s a ‘contemporary’ art exhibition on show there, sculptures with tattoos, definitely not my cup of tea!

Our last visit of the day was to the ‘Basilica Di San Francesco’, a bit of an unassuming church but home to a host of Renaissance frescoes.  Among these frescoes is the ‘Legend of the True Cross’ by Piero della Francesco.  Not a story I’d heard previously but it involves the Garden of Eden, Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Emperor Constantine, and somebody down a well for a few days!   That aside these frescoes are just magnificent and in fantastic condition, whereas some of the others, by less important artists, have suffered the ravages of time and weather and only fragments remain. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sept 27 - Perugia (Day trip to Spoleto)

Image
  Sept 27 - Perugia (Day trip Spoleto) Off to Spoleto today, an ancient city in the foothills of the Apennine Ranges.  Divided into the medieval upper town, and the predominantly modern lower town, our initial goal was to head up to the fortress at the top of the hill.  In theory this was going to be relatively easy as the town has installed a number of escalators all the way to the top making it an easy ‘climb’. However, signage to said escalators being non-existent, we found ourselves wandering around town for ages before finding our way up.   The fortress, the ‘Rocca Albornoziana’, was built in the 14th century and was originally part of a fortification system constructed by the church to strengthen its military power.  Today however, it houses the ‘National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto’, although in more recent times it was used as a prison.  Having some great views of the city and the local countryside it also overlooks the magnificent 13th-centur...
Read more

Sept 28 - Perugia (Day trip to Assisi)

Image
  Sept 28 - Perugia (Day trip to Assisi) Having experienced some pretty steep hills yesterday, today, on arrival in Assisi, we took the easy option and got the bus to the top of town before strolling down! 😊 On a recommendation we first visited a couple of churches in the upper part of town.  Both nice, although nothing spectacular, but considering where we were, i.e. Assisi, I suppose we were both thinking they’d be a little bit special (sorry St Clare! 😊 ) Walking through town though was very nice, really ‘Olde Worlde’, with some great piazzas, cobbled lanes, some Roman remains, and, because it’s in the hills, lovely views of the local countryside.  It’s not often that I’ll mention food on here but today we found a sensational restaurant, overlooking the walls of the city and just metres from the Basilica of Saint Francis, we chose it simply for its location. The food however was superb and, considering its setting, it was no more expensive than most other places w...
Read more