Today we drove into Arezzo, the capital city of the Arezzo province in Tuscany. This town was built in the mountains by the Etruscan civilization around the 6th century BCE. It was conquered by the Romans around 311 BCE, and became a home for retired Roman soldiers.
Our first stop was at the Arezzo Archaeological Museum, which was built directly into the ruins of the old Roman amphitheater. This museum contained artifacts found in the area dating back to the Roman times, including the tools used to mass-produce the iconic clay vases.
After the museum we toured the Basilica of San Francesco, a church that began construction around 1290 CE. This church is best known for housing frescoes depicting the Legend of the True Cross. The basement of this church contained an exhibition hall, currently showing stereoscopic pictures from the late 1800s.
Here are my pictures from throughout the day:
The grounds of the ancient Roman amphitheater
Pottery found during the archeological dig
A typical roman bedroom
A mural of Neptune
Various figurines
Vittorio Fossombroni, an Italian statesman from Arezzo
Most places are closed in Italy on Sundays, so yesterday was mostly a rest day. We took some time to explore our resort, find the nearest train station, and wander around the closest town.
Today we took a guided tour to Cortona and Assisi. Cortona is towards the top of a mountain, and was where the movie Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed. We used some of our time there to admire the view. By the time we went through a small museum and some shops our time was up and we had to get on the bus to move on.
Assisi is best known as the birthplace as both Saint Francis and Saint Claire. We had lunch shortly after arriving, and then had the chance to tour their basilicas. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures in eitherbasilica. On our way out of town we saw the basilica of Saint Mary, a church built around a much smaller church that Saint Francis had reconstructed.
