South to Cortona
Traveling south of Arezzo you enter the area of Valdichiana former marshes, where profitable cattle breeding is now carried out and the valued Florentine bistecca is produced. Going west to Siena, pass through MONTE SAN SAVINO, a market town on a hill with a handful of Renaissance buildings and sculptures — among them several works by a local young man, Andrei Sansovino, who later found fame at the court of Lorenzo de'Medici.
CastIGLION FIORENTINO looks similar on the road to Cortona. The walls are preserved, in Palazzo Comunale there is a modest pinacoteca (with the beautiful Virgin Mary of iw. Anna), and at the elegant central piazza there is a loggia supposedly designed by Vasari, with nice views of the surrounding hills. To the south from here, left of the road to Cortona, above the hills emerges the castle of Montecchio Vesponi. Sir John Hawkwood resided here (in the Italian tradition: Giovanni Acuto), depicted on a fresco in the Florentine duomo. Currently it is a private property, but on Mondays every hour, from 9.00 do 12.00, you can visit it with a guide.
Cortona
Surrounded by ribbons of terraces with vineyards and olive trees, the city on the CORTONA hill makes an impression of a very ancient place. Views from this height — a five-kilometer road leads here from the plains below — span vast areas: in the south stretches Valdichiana, and behind the plains to the west you can see Lago Trasimeno. A large settlement existed here already at the time of the Etruscan invasion in the eighth century. p.n.e., and later the city remained an important Roman center until its destruction by the Goths around 450 r. n.e. Then it was reborn only in the fifteenth century., when Florence took them over. In addition to a number of Etruscan tombstones, the biggest attraction of the city is its medieval character – the location on the ridge made it impossible to expand, therefore, industrial functions were taken over by CAMUCIA, located downstairs in Valdichian.
City
No matter how you got here, you will find yourself in Piazza della Repubblica, dominated by squats, battlement Palazzo del Comune. To the right of the square is Piazza Signorelli, named after the artist Luc Signorelli, Cortona's most famous son, and built by the almost wobbly sixteenth-century Duomo and Palazzo Pretorio.
The latter now houses the Museo deirAccademia Etrusca (summer Tue-Sun. 10.00-13.00 i 16.00-19.00; in winter, Tue-Sun. 9.00-13.00 i 15.00-17.00; 3000 L), where, contrary to the name, only two rooms are dedicated to Etruscan finds. However, they are the museum's biggest attraction — one of the most important exhibits is a huge bronze lamp from the V century. p.n.e., with alternating figures of crouched men and women. One room at the end is dedicated to the futurist painter Gino Severini, also born in Cortona.
The second object worth seeing in Cortona, in addition to the steep streets themselves, to Museo Diocesano (summer Tue-Sun. 9.00-13.00 i 15.00-18.30; winter 9.00-13.00 i 15.00-17.00; 3000 L), just behind the Museo Etrusca in Piazza del Duomo. Despite their miniature size, they are one of the most fascinating collections of Renaissance art in Tuscany., including, but not limited to, Works by Signorelli, Sassetta, Lorenzetti and Fra Angelica, whose exquisite Annunciation was created during the artist's ten-year stay in the Corton monastery of San Domenico.
Signorelli's next works can be found in the church of San Nicoló at the end of via Berrettini, access via a winding street through Piazza della Pescaia. On the front of the main altar, the artist painted the Entombment, and at the back madonna with saints. A steep path leads from here next to the church of Santa Margherita – rebuilt in the nineteenth century. and housing the beautiful medieval tombstone of the ascetic Margaret of Cortona — to Fortezza Medicea, at the top of the city. The fortress itself is closed in the early afternoon, but its surroundings are a great place for an outdoor dinner — above the dilapidated ancient walls. (Etruscan and Roman) and between the rows of cypress trees there are beautiful views.
It is also pleasant to walk down the hill from Piazza Garibaldi to the excellent proportions, although the decaying Renaissance church of Santa Maria del Calcinaio. Just behind the church, arrows point even further down, to the Etruscan Tanella di Pitagora , a well-preserved burial chamber from the fourth century. p.n.e., quite funny associated with the Greek mathematician.
Practical details
Cortona can be easily visited on a day trip from Arezzo. LFI buses travel between the two cities approximately every hour, and passenger trains from Arezzo stop at Camucia-Cortona station, from where special buses run to the center of the old town. If you want to leave the province by train, for example, towards Rome, it is worth taking a shuttle bus to the station in Teróntola, 6 km to the south. Traveling south to Montepulciano, you have to go by bus to Chianciano and change there.
The bus station is in Piazza Garibaldi, from where there is a wonderful view of Lake Trasimeno (Lago Trasimento). The only horizontal street in the city, via Nazionale, leads to Piazza della Repubblica and Piazza Signorelli, core of the city. Biuro AAST, via Nazionale 72 (pn.-sb. 8.30-12.30 i 15.00-18.00), provides maps and helps you find accommodation.
There are half a dozen hotels in the right city (others are located in Camucia and Teróntola); one-star — Athens, via S. Antonio (• 0575/603008), and Italy, via Ghibellina 5 (•0575/603264) — prices for two are from 30 000 do 35000 L. In the heart of the old town there is a good cheap youth hostel, Ostełlo San Marco, via Maffei 57 (•0575/601392).
For a meal you can go to Pizzeria-Ristorante Zerolandia, via Ghibellina 3 (Wed. closed.), or a little more expensive, but the best place in the city La Logetta in Piazza della Repubblica (pn. closed.). With night entertainment in the summer there is an open-air cinema in public gardens, where Cortonians also go to passeggiata. There are also a couple of summer discos, in which attendance is increased by American students in language and arts courses, organized here by the University of Athens, Georgia.
And finally, on Saturdays, a market is held in Piazza della Repubblica, and on Mondays in Camucia there is a great agricultural market and a general market.