AREZZO
The historic town centre presents glimpses of times gone by, it reveals corners of unrepeatable charm similar to what it must have been like between the 12th and 13th century. Above the spectacular Piazza Grande, with its trapezoidal perimeter on a steep incline, Giorgio Vasari bequeathed the imposing Palazzo delle Logge (1573-95) as a clear example of Tuscan Mannerist architecture. The rear of the extraordinary, peerless, Romanesque parish church of St. Maria (12th century) appears to climb up the sloping piazza. Its façade has three superimposed arcades with a total of 68 columns crowned by capitals decorated in various ways, and the bell tower with its 80 openings known as the “hundred holes” was built in 1330. Vasari was buried in the main chapel of the apse, and the high altar is dominated by the famous polyptych by Pietro Lorenzetti, the oldest work we have by this painter (1320). In 1459 Piero della Francesca painted the fresco of St. Maria Maddelena for the Cathedral of St. Donato (begun in 1277), but his best piece of work can be found in the austere church of St. Francis (1290-1377), where he depicted the Stories of the Cross between 1452 and 1464, including the Dream of Constantine (1457-58), the first nocturn of the Renaissance. Within a short distance from one another lie the house of Vasari (today a museum and example of the home of an Italian Mannerist artist, where Vasari worked as both architect and painter) and the Museum of Mediaeval and Modern Art, a valuable collection with exhibits from the artistic seasons of the town from 13th to the 16th century.