Sanspolcro

We caught a bus from Arezzo to Sansepolcro,  1 hour drive NE of Arezzo. Sansepolcro is the birthplace of Piero della Francesca.  The old part is a pretty, well kept walled town. The museum used to be a palace and now houses, amongst other things a large PdF fresco.  It was under restoration and we only got to see half of it. There was an exhibition of an early 19th century art historian's theories about the similarities between PdF and Caravaggio. On display was a Caravaggio that he had owned.

Next we went to see the house where PdF was born. There was an interesting  film about how early on in his career he had studied geometry and had used it to get proper perspective in his paintings, something he was known for.

We were wandering  along a street looking at the cafes trying to decide where to eat. A local took us round a corner to a place she often ate at. Another nice meal.

We then caught a bus to Monterchi, 30 minutes S of Sansepolcro.  We walked from the bus stop up a hill ( Noel said it was a mountain) , round about a bit  then arrived at a place that was built to house a particular fresco of PdF, the pregnant madonna. We were a bit underwhelmed. We did however enjoy the film about his life that we watched.

The bus ride back to Arezzo went well. There were only about 10 people on the 3 buses we caught, they only run ever few hours and not all the buses stop at all the places , so scheduling the day was a bit tricky. If the last bus had not arrived we would have had a 4 hour wait or an hours walk to a different bus route.

We bought some delicious things from the very well equipped supermarket for dinner. We are staying in  a little one way street opposite a medium sized piazza. Cars are parked down one side only and there is just room for cars to pass. The traffic stops for delivery vans who just stop in the street.  People walk up and down the street  seemingly disregarding the traffic.  Almost directly over the road from our front door is a little bar where we  have our first cappucino of the morning  and our  breakfast roll. Squeezed onto the pavement are 2 little tables. Before dinner we sat there having a drink and some nibbles for an hour watching the local life.

Churches and a fort

We started the day in the Basilica of San Francesco. The walls of the part of the church behind the altar were covered in a whole series of frescoes by Piero della Francesca. These told the story known as the Legend of the True Cross in which the wood used for Jesus' s cross is followed from a seed planted Adam's mouth to where  it is brought back to Jerusalem many years later by Heraclius.

In the crypt of the church we saw an exhibition of old photos of Arezzo  and a display of travellers photos from about 100 years ago as they did their Grand Tour. We sat in a cafe watching the world go past while we considered our next activity.

After lunch we walked back to the fort and wandered around inside. The restoration process is on going.  We walked to the Duomo but it was not yet open after its afternoon siesta. What a pity, we had to go to another cafe. The Gothic style was pleasing in its simplicity.  I liked the light timber  modern chairs for the people officiating in the services.

Another nice dinner. Smoked swordfish for appetiser, chicche ( small gnocchi) with seafood for primi, baked orata ( a fish) and grilled chicken for secondi,  friarielle  ( like spinach but less pleasnt) and grilled eggplant  for contorni.  Accompanied by a glass of local chianti and local valdichiana. Looking out over a piazza. Life is tough.

Monday

Over the road from us is a little bar and non touristy restaurant. We had coffee and a croissant ( not on my diet)  there then went to the tourist bureau. I had read they opened at 9.30 but, unfortunately, it was 10. We went to look at the remains of an old Roman ampitheatre. After getting a proper map from the tourist office,  and trying with no success to get a map of the local buses  from the nearby transport office, ( well, the man behind the desk said he had none, so I  took a,photo of the map on the wall)  we had another coffee . We went to Tim,  the modem shop, had to wait for about 20 minutes, took ages while the girl fiddled, saw that it worked for her, came back to the apartment and , unfortunately, it would not work for us. Back to the shop, tried again. Back here it worked, but it does not work continuously. We are not bothering any more.

I was ready for my large glass of sangiovese with lunch.

I planned a route for the afternoon, which  did not quite work out but it was a very relaxing afternoon. About 300 m from us is the main piazza in Arezzo. It was almost deserted so we sat at a table on the edge and looked at all the lovely buildings over a fruit juice. Then we walked up the hill to a fort at the top of the hill. It was closed on Mondays. We pottered around the park adjacent to the old walls looking at the views over the eastern Tuscan countryside for a while. Looking at the Duomo was next on the list, but instead we had a drink from a little bar in the middle of the park ( second drink of the day not on my diet) watching the hills. 

Getting to Arezzo

Getting to Arezzo

All went smoothly. We realised once again how far Australia is from anywhere else. We also appreciate how lucky we are not to be flying cattle class. The shower in Munich was particularly welcome. The flight from Munich to Rome over the snow - clad mountains was quite spectacular.

We were a bit concerned about how long we would have to queue for in Rome because we had been warned by Lufthanser that because of the G7 summit in Taormina that internal border checks had been reinstated. According to the quoted dates they would still be in place when we went through. We landed on time, walked straight through the border checking booths, not an official in sight, quickly found the baggage carousel, read that the baggage from our flight was expected in 15 minutes, collected our bags about 8 minutes late, walked straight through the customs controls, again, not an official in sight, went straight to the train station , bought tickets to Arezzo and got onto a train to Rome main station,  Termini, which left about 5 minutes later. I looked at my watch and realized only about 30 minutes had passed. We were able to catch an earlier train than expected and we very pleased to finally get to our apartment at 4pm.

After sorting ourselves out, we set off to find a particular mobile phone and modem shop . We had been told by our landlady that we had to get them to sort out the modem for us and  relieve us of €15 so that we could have a wifi connection.  Unfortunately they were closed. So we set off in the direction of  a pizzeria that i had read of that made gluten free pizzas. It took us ages to get there because there were barriers up all around the  town. We saw some women ( I am assuming women but they were so heavily made up or masked that maybe not)  wearing long lavish brightly coloured gowns  parading down a road , followed by all sorts of old cars. Then we saw some long distance runners. Arezzo is a hill top town. The course would not have been easy. We took ages to get to our destination because it was hard to cross roads because of the barriers. We gave up when we found ourselves on the wrong side of the road to our destjnation and stopped for a glass of wine at a cafe.  Noel played safe but I tried a vernaccia from Sienna.

We then found an excellent supermarket for some supplies , including dinner from their deli which we enjoyed in our apartment. We have found about 6 stove top espresso makers of different sizes but have to boil water for our tea in a saucepan.