Introduction
85km (53 miles) SE of Florence; 246km (153 miles) N of Rome
Arezzo is a medium-size Tuscan city, an agricultural center clambering up a low hill. On the very top of the slope live the aristocrats, peering down at the newly wealthy citizens who are gradually moving upward, both literally and figuratively. The city is best known for its antiques and its artistic masterpieces by Piero della Francesca, and stained-glass marvels by Guillaume de Marcillat. Arretium was an important member of the 12-city Etruscan confederation, and it was famous in Roman times for its mass-produced corallino ceramics. The Ghibelline medieval comune ran afoul of Florence's Guelfs, and the city's armies were soundly trounced by Florence in the 1289 Battle of Campaldino. (The Florentine forces counted a young Dante Alighieri among the foot soldiers.) More recently, the city's gotten some international face time as the setting for Roberto Benigni's 1999 Oscar-winning film La Vita è Bella (Life Is Beautiful)....
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Santa Maria della Pieve
This 12th-century church is Lombard Romanesque architecture at its most beautiful, with a craggy, eroded facade of stacked arcades in luminous...
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San Francesco
One of the greatest fresco cycles by one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance covers the sanctuary of this 14th-century church. Piero della...
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Basilica di San Francesco
- Located in Central Italy is the second oldest church built by the Franciscans in Arezzo. Designed in fresco style (similar to mosaic design) and...
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