Intermezzo in Arezzo

Since I insisted on rushing to the Basilica in Arezzo so early in the morning, by the time we had finished there and checked in to our B&B it was still only mid-morning. We had seen a market setting up on our way to the Basilica, so the first order of business was to wander the streets on a lovely Sunday morning, checking out antiques and bric-a-brac. This was followed by lunch - a rather dry porchetta sandwich for me (the bread in general left something to be desired in Italy), while Jules had the typical Tuscan speciality of lampredotto i.e. tripe sandwich. Dry was definitely not the word here, it was pretty overwhelmingly dripping and mushy with its tripe stew filling. I had a bite but it was a bit much for my stomach. A stringy piece of entrails fell out and even the birds rejected it. Jules soldiered on, but I had to look away in order to finish my sandwich without getting sick!

Perfect present for a child you hate

I think this might be the most Italian photo ever... The alley, the vespa, the sign reading "Johnny Bruschetta"...

After lunch we visited the Casa Vasari, home of one of Arezzo's most famous sons, the painter, architect and writer Giorgio Vasari. While Vasari is most well known now for his Lives, a gossipy history of fellow famous artists of the Renaissance, we had just encountered his work in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, where he executed some works and directed the overall decoration. He also began the construction of the Uffizi gallery.

The Casa Vasari is not his childhood home (as with the Raphael house we visited later on in Urbino), but rather a house he bought in his home town at the age of 30, in 1541. He was already active as a painter, working and studying in Florence, Rome and elsewhere, by this time, and it took him until after 1568 to complete its decoration.

It's pretty small, but there are some beautiful works, especially in the main salon:

We stopped in the park next to the Duomo for a rest and a gelato - like most of the towns in this part of Italy, Arezzo is built on a hill and there's a lot of steep climbs up and down to get anywhere. It gets bonus points for having outdoor escalators that took us plus suitcases up from the carpark into the city itself. Then we visited the Duomo itself, which is pretty enough but fairly unremarkable by the high standards of Italian cathedrals.

Our final stop was the Medici fortress, which offers some lovely views although there's nothing really left of the inside. There was a pretty cool art exhibition on while we were there, which definitely fit with the gloomy fortress feel.

Looking across the large city cemetery

After all this, we were too tired for anything other than pizza and Netflix in our hotel room, which is not too bad a way to spend an evening, after all.