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.