The fascination of Arezzo
In this episode of "Walking through Italy", we talk about a splendid artistic town: Arezzo. In this Tuscan town, great artists have left their works, in particular Giorgio Vasari, who was born right here.
Arezzo is a wonderful Tuscan town, which retains still now the fascination of the past.
Great medieval and Renaissance artists, such as Piero della Francesca, Cimabue, Andrea della Robbia and Giorgio Vasari, made Arezzo a splendid artistic town.
We start from the Cathedral, dedicated to saint Donatus, the patron saint of Arezzo. In Gothic style, it was constructed at the end of the thirteenth century, but it was completed in the sixteenth century.
In the interior the beautiful storied windows by Guillaume de Marcillat and the wonderful Magdalen by Piero della Francesca, a fresco realized in the half of the fifteenth century, strike us.
The most known Basilica of the town is the one dedicated to saint Francis, because it houses one of the most important and beautiful works by Piero della Francesca: the Legend of the True Cross, a cycle of frescoes inspired by the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine.
Interesting is also the Guasconi chapel, completely frescoed by Spinello Aretino.
In the Basilica of San Domenico, constructed in Gothic style at the end of the thirteenth century, we find the famous painted Crucifix, an early work by Cimabue.
A very important museum to visit is Casa Vasari, an arcated building bought by the great master (he was born in Arezzo in 1511) in 1540 and decorated by himself and his apprentices. The Corridor of Ceres, which shows a fresco representing a chariot with two dragons on which Ceres is seated, and the Hall of Apollo and the Muses, in which a fresco on the ceiling represents Apollo with nine Muses are worth seeing.
In addition, here, notes, registers and the precious volumes of the collection of letters of Vasari are kept.
Arezzo was also the birthplace of Francesco Petrarca, the great poet; in fact, here it is possible to see his presumed house. A particular event is the Giostra del Saracino, a medieval commemoration of a knightly competition in which the different quartiers of the town take part and it takes place in Piazza Grande. Civil buildings and palaces overlook this square, which has a characteristic trapezoidal shape.
Arezzo was also scenery of important and beautiful films, such as La vita è bella with Roberto Benigni.
Ilaria Baratta
