Arezzo - Tuscany

Arezzo is located a distance of 65 km southeast of Florence—and of Florence's tourist throngs. A medium-sized Tuscan city, Arezzo is often overlooked by large regional tours, but boasts enough unspoiled provincial ambience and charm to have caught the eye not so long ago of "local folk-hero" and zany Italian cinematographer, Roberto Benigni. In fact, many of the scenes from his Oscar-winning film La Vita é Bella (Life Is Beautiful) were filmed here. Today, the economy is focused primarily on the numerous jewelers and goldsmiths at work in the city—Arezzo is home to the world's largest gold manufacturing plant-and on the antiques trade.

History
Known as Arretium, the city became one of twelve important affiliates of the Etruscan confederation. Early on in its history, Arezzo chose to ally itself with Rome against invading barbarians. Starting from the 3rd century A.D., and for the following two centuries, Arezzo had important influence in expanding Rome's control over the northern half of Italy. When the Roman Empire dissolved, Arezzo once again suffered attacks from barbarians, prompting the construction and expansion of its fortifications and protective system of walls. In the Middle Ages, Arezzo remained a prosperous and independent republic until falling to Florence in 1289 at the Battle of Campladino, a defeat invited by the city's opposing political loyalties. (Dante Alighieri himself is said to have been counted among the Florentine troops as a footsoldier.)

Sights
Piero della Francesca's works can be viewed at the Basilica di San Francesco (an 11th century construction). Piazza Grande contains the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pieve, Arezzo's main architectural monument, and houses showrooms brimming with elaborate furniture and products of craftsmanship. The Piazza is also the site of the Fiera Antiquaria, Arezzo's monthly antique fair. The Duomo is the city's mammoth cathedral, and is representative of Tuscan Gothic-style architecture. Bishop Guido Tarlati's tomb is located inside near the altar.

Art & Culture
Famous in Roman times for its mass-produced corallino ceramics, Arezzo has persisted in its artistic tract producing a number of "cultural giants." Guido Monaco (or Guido d'Arezzo), born circa 995 A.D., is noted as the inventor of the modern musical scale and notation. Here, the poet Petrarch (1304-1374) helped determine the founding of humanism, a movement that helped open the doors to the entire cultural Renaissance. Two more sons of Arezzo were Spinello Aretino (1350-1410), a master of the Italian fresco, and Pietro Aretino (1492-1566), a gifted and scandal-provoking poet of his time. Another well-known Aretine, Giorgio Vasari (1512-1574), made his mark as a talented architect, and is also responsible for the written work and "earliest art-history text" Lives of the Artists (a collection of biographies about masters from the time of Giotto through that of Michelangelo). However, it is outsider Pierro della Francesca whose incredible frescoes have come to be heralded as Arezzo's permanent tribute to the Renaissance.

Transportation
Trains run in and out of Piazza della Repubblica with easy connections to Florence and Rome. TRA-IN, SITA, and LFI buses also stop at the Piazza, directly to the left of the train station.