Arezzo

Arezzo is Tuscany's quietly under-appreciated set-piece — 96,000 residents on a Tuscan hilltop 80 km southeast of Florence, with one of the densest concentrations of Etruscan, Roman, medieval and early-Renaissance heritage anywhere in the region but without the tour-bus crush of its more famous siblings. The headline is Piero della Francesca's Leggenda della Vera Croce — the fresco cycle (1452–66) in the Cappella Bacci of the Basilica di San Francesco that Kenneth Clark called 'one of the most beautiful things in the world', narrating the journey of the Cross from Adam's grave through Solomon to Constantine to Heraclius in 10 panels of geometric serenity and silver-grey light. Timed entry, 25 people for 30 minutes; book 2–3 weeks ahead. Beyond Piero: the Piazza Grande (the sloped trapezoidal square Roberto Benigni used as Life is Beautiful's central set — surrounded by the Palazzo della Fraternita dei Laici with its 14th-c facade, the Palazzo delle Logge by Vasari (Arezzo's other native son, designed in 1573), and the apse of the Pieve di Santa Maria's 12th-c Romanesque exterior); the Pieve di Santa Maria itself (the Lombard-Romanesque parish church with a five-tier facade widely copied across central Italy); the Cattedrale di San Donato (Gothic, with stained glass by Guillaume de Marcillat); the Casa Vasari (the painter-architect's own house, frescoed by himself); the Museo Archeologico Nazionale on the site of the Roman Amphitheatre (the famous Vasi corallini — coral-red glazed Roman pottery — were made here, the manufacturing centre for the empire). The other big draw is the Fiera Antiquaria — every first weekend of the month, 500+ antique dealers fill the Piazza Grande and the surrounding streets in Italy's largest monthly antique fair (since 1968), drawing dealers from across Europe. And twice a year (June + September), the Giostra del Saracino — the medieval jousting tournament between the four city quartieri (Porta Crucifera, Porta del Foro, Porta Sant'Andrea, Porta Santo Spirito) with horse riders charging a wooden Saracen target in the Piazza Grande, running since the 13th century. The food is Tuscan: pici with hare ragù, ribollita, the local bistecca chianina from the surrounding Val di Chiana valley (the giant Chianina breed of cattle that the Florentine bistecca is properly cut from), Pecorino Toscano, and the Vino Nobile + Brunello + Chianti Classico are all within an hour's drive south.