Arezzo, the town in which Piero della Francesca lived, in which the Saracen's Joust takes place, is the chief town of the middle-east Tuscany, easily reachable from Florence (Km 80), Siena (Km 65), Perugia (Km 80) and Rome (Km 205). Situated at the confluence of four valleys (Valdichiana, Valtiberina, Valdarno and Casentino) characterized by different landscapes and traditions, Arezzo is a very hospitable and welcoming town where "The Life Is Beautiful"(“La vita è bella ").

A bright hill town in eastern Tuscany, Arezzo boasts a very ancient origin.
After being one of the major Etruscan lucumonies it became a famous Roman city.
Important monuments bear witness to flourishing economic activities, foremost the Amphitheatre with its remains. Well known were its foundries and artistic red vase factories ( called coralline vases) whose technique spread throughout the Roman world.
In the Middle Ages Arezzo was a free municipality where often the interests of the Ghibelline party prevailed, antagonizing the nearby Guelph Florence. The defeat of the Ghibellines at Campaldino (1289) seriously compromised its fortunes, and, in spite of a rebound under the Tarlatis, it finally capitulated to become a Florentine domain (1384). With the rest of Tuscany, it became part of the Medici Grand-duchy. Arezzo lies on a hill at the edge of a plain formed by the Arno river alluviums; on the top of the hill stand out the Cathedral, the City Palace and the Medici Fortress; the main roads descend in a fan shape down to the city gates. The highest part of the city preserves a distinct Medieval aspect, with some praiseworthy examples of later times architecture. The part of the city descending towards the plain has a modern and lively aspect. Built on the top of the hill in a bold and a solemn Tuscan gothic style, the Cathedral preserves in its interior noticeable works of art, among which Piero della Francesca's Magdalene and Guglielmo de Marcillat's decorated windows.

Santa Maria della Pieve (12th and 13thcenturies) is the largest and the most beautiful Romanesque church in Arezzo region and certainly the most characteristic that sprang up in the city during the period of its independence, its tower of " a hundred holes" (so called from its many double mullioned windows) is one of the emblems of Arezzo.
The sumptuous decoration of the façade and the apse is tempered by prevailing severity of the spacious interior. Behind the church is the Piazza Grande where on the last but one Saturday of June and the first Sunday of September is held the Joust of the Saracen. Here there is also an antique fair on the first Sunday of every month and the previous Saturday.
The Antique Fair created by Ivan Bruschi in 1968 attracts about one thousand exhibitors from all over Italy gather to show their furniture, antique china, jewellery, glasswork, fabrics, a wide range of sacred and profane paintings, iron and copper artefacts and all manner of nostalgia-evoking curios hunted out from dusty attics.
Considered a true anthology of architectural styles, from the Romanesque to the Gothic, the Renaissance and the Baroque, Piazza Grande is one of the most original, organic and picturesque squares in Italy. Next to houses and towers from the Middle Ages and the following centuries, this square also contains the precious Palazzo della Fraternita dei Laici (14th-16th centuries) along with the bright and imposing Loggiato del Vasari (16th century). In the Basilica di San Francesco one can admire Piero della Francesca's extraordinary frescos telling the "Legend of the True Cross" (15th century). Piero was a son of the Arezzo territory like Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Luca Signorelli, Michelangelo, Sansovino, Vasari, to mention only major artists. His luminous stories represent an international attraction and Arezzo most relevant boasting.

The Museo Archeologico exhibits material of inestimable value. There are priceless numismatic collections, Greek and Etrusca pottery, bronzes and the already mentioned "coralline vases", the latter the product of an industry which flourished in the late Republican and early imperial Roman periods. The Museo Statale d'Arte Medioevale e Moderna exhibits works by the best-known Arezzo artists: Margaritone, Spinello, Bartolomeo della Gatta, Signorelli, Vasari, along with excellent examples of other Italian and foreign schools. Besides paintings, sculptures, ivory objects, seals, coins and jewellery of very high quality, there is also a very rich collection of majolicas, one of the most important in Italy. Highly interesting is the Casa Vasari complemented by the Museo Vasari, an extraordinary example of an artist's home. Other monuments in the city with their beauty and stylistic originality bear witness to Arezzo civilization and importance in different historical periods. We wish to mention the church of San Domenico with a magnificent crucifix by Cimabue; the Portico Santa Maria delle Grazie, the earliest porticoed square in the Renaissance; the Badia delle Sante Flora e Lucilla with beautiful paintings and the Renaissance churches of Santa Maria in Gradi and SS. Annunziata. A traditional touristic destination, Arezzo is also visited by those with interests in the original aspects of its economic life, the most significant being the goldsmithing, clothing and electronics industry, complemented by a wide net of small hand-craft enterprises. Its cultural and business life are the occasions for yearly encounters like those offered by the International Poliphonic Competition ( in the end of August), one of the most important European rock festival Arezzo Wave where participate a great number of young people not only from Italy ( first week of July) and the International Gold Fair. Its geographic position, the fast and convenient rail and expressway connections as well as modern structures like the Centro Affari e Convegni, make Arezzo an ideal city for study and work meetings and conferences. Three valleys - the Casentino, Valdarno and Val di Chiana - surround Arezzo, while a fourth one, the Tiber valley, is the most northerly segment. These valleys are beautiful attractions not only for the landscape but also for many famous places. In the Val di Chiana, for example, there is Cortona, a town that successfully blends the urban nature of its historical buildings and their art treasures with rural life. The gates of the monasteries, the little churches in their leafy settings, the tiny houses covering the steeply-sloping hillside all the way to the top, ooze the typical atmosphere of a sleepy Tuscan hill town at one with its peaceful surroundings.

Out of the vast Casentino landscape rises up the castle of Poppi that, together with the scattered parish churches, abbeys and monasteries, provided authentic focuses of power and spread a new and distinctly medieval spirituality through the Camaldolese and Franciscan settlements. In fact, in the Casentino valley rise up the hermitage of the Verna and of Camaldoli.
A visit to the Verna sanctuary brings one close to this mister, which is endorsed by the supernatural atmosphere of this centuries-old forest spread over a striking limestone outcrop with sheer cliff faces on three sides. The hermitage of Camaldoli, instead, is situated in the silence of the mountainside and the ascent from the monastery up to the hermitage becomes more captivating when the modern road yields to the ancient footpath, dotted with sporadic chapels and wooden crosses that once delimited the area of religion seclusion.
In the Tiber Valley which lies between the sources and the hollow of Sansepolcro, an area of transition and frontier. Castles, churches, abbeys, hilltop towns, and two absolute jewels in the region's crown, Anghiari e Sansepolcro, constitute the fabric of this area.
Another old town is Monterchi, originated as a fortified outpost in the 11th century, after the memorable Battaglia d'Anghiari (1440) passed into Florentine hands. Here, Piero della Francesca painted one of the finest frescos, the Madonna del Parto.

The Valdarno Superiore, or Upper Arno valley, is a kind of furrow scorin the earth's crust between the Casentino to the east, the Valdichiana to the south, and Florence and the Mugello to the north. The ridgeline of the Pratomagno closes the Valley off to the east; the western border is formed by the Chianti hills. The dramatic yellowstone outcrops known as the "Balze" stand out striklingy amid the auburn tinges of the pines, the shady oaks, the silver olive trees, and the deep green vineyard - a natural caleidoscope from which the towers of the age-old burghs, churches such as the Church of Gropina (Loro Ciuffenna) dedicated to St. Peter and considered one of the oldest and most important churches diocese of Arezzo raised around the year 1000 and castle just proudly skyward.