Arezzo: a fuller exploration

The Piero frescos in the church of San Franceso

On the second day of our stay in Arezzo our initial objective was to visit San Franceso to see the fresco cycle called the Legend of the True Cross painted by Piero della Francesca in the middle of the fifteenth century. There are three bands of frescoes on both the left and right sides of the chancel, as well as the ones on the wall behind the altar visible in the photo. They depict episodes in the legend, which essentially postulates that the cross that Christ was crucified on was effectively a descendant of the tree of life whose apple Adam ate and so created original sin. The true cross is thus the agent of man's redemption from original sin. We had seen reproductions of the frescoes, but they did not fully prepare us for their beauty and grandeur.

After that we went back down the road to the church of the Badia. It is an old church with a handsome campanile and plain, vaguely gothic, facade, but inside it was remodelled into a cool elegant renaissance design by Vasari in the later 16th century (more on Vasari in yesterday's post).

There is one older fresco on the inside of the facade: this beautiful 15th century image of St Laurence in a trompe l'oeuil niche.

Now we walked back up the busy Via Cavour and turned left up another main street, the Corso Italia, to reach the facade of Santa Maria della Pieve - the beautiful romanesque church whose apse end is a major feature of the Piazza Grande. The extraordinary square facade with its rows of columns is hard to photograph from the narrow streets in front of it, but is simultaneously both austere and extravagant.

 Now we walked through the Piazza Grande, as we had yesterday, but approaching it from a different direction.  We looked again at the grand side of the square which we enjoyed yesterday.

 And then the picturesque cluster of buildings on the side opposite.

Now we walked up to the Prato Park and turned right to see the star-shaped Medici castle. Unfortunately, it was closed for restoration. The austere walls remain impressive.

Our route now involved a long descent through a quiet quarter, with our eventual goal being the former amphitheatre in the south east of the city. At the bottom we passed these two towers dominating the entrance to a street, inevitably named the Street of the Two Towers. A nearby plaque explained that they were typical of 13th century dwellings.

A little further on we entered the modern-looking piazza of St Agostino

After a lengthy pause for lunch, we finally made it to the amphitheatre. It is oval in shape with low remains on one side and pleasant renaissance building on the other, designed along the same curve.  

From here it was quite a long walk round the peripheral boulevard to the Porta San Lorentino where we enter and leave the city. This time we looked inside the gatehouse at the bronze replica of an Etruscan statue of the Chimera.

This fierce mythical creature has three heads: one of a lion in the usual place, one of a goat coming out of its back and one of a snake at the end of its tail.

Conditions: 28 degrees, sunny.

Distance: 6 miles all told.

Rating: five stars so long as you see the frescoes.