The attractive scenario of the Giostra del Saracino (Joust of the Saracen) in the heart of the medieval city. Its unusual shape - trapezoid, with a strongly sloping surface - occupies the lower part of the old platea communis, which dated back to about 1200 and had a much wider perimeter than the current square. It was dominated, at the higher end, by the palazzo del Comune (of which only a few traces remain at the end of via Pelliceria) and the palazzo del Popolo, whose ruins are visible at the top of via dei Pileati, incorporated in the walls that hold up the embankment of the Prato. During the sixteenth century, after the first of the two public buildings had been left gradually to fall apart, the other had been radically knocked down and the defence system of the town had been totally changed, the square was reduced to its current size by the construction, on the northeast side, of Vasari's palazzo delle Logge .
This is the most important change that has been made to the medieval structure of the square. The other three sides, where the alteration made to the buildings through the course of time have been less radical, offer a harmonious synthesis of Tuscan architecture from the 13th to the 18th centuries. On the southeast and southwest sides, there is a series of buildings containing private residences; the northwest side, situated between via di Seteria and via G. Vasari, is completely occupied by the apse of the Pieve of S. Maria the palazzo del Tribunale and the palazzo di Fraternita.

This is an impressive Gothic construction, which was begun at the end of the 13th century and continued, with several interruptions, until the beginning of the 16th. Its bulk dominates the top of the hill of Arezzo and rises up above all the views of the town. The unfinished facade was realized according to a design by Dante Viviani at the beginning of the 20th century. The 14th century Romanesque-Gothic portal on the right hand side is flanked by two porphyry column stumps left over from an earlier (perhaps Roman) building; in the lunette, there is a group in terracotta (Madonna with child between S.Donato and Gregorio X) from the end of the 14th century. The campanile was erected half way throught the 19th century next to the polygonal apse. The spire is 20th century.
The majestic interior is divided into a nave and two aisles by tall polystyle pilasters, which, together with the ogival arches, confer on it the impression of a strong upward movement. The stained glass windows, which are mostly by Guillaume de Marcillat (16th century) are remakable; the Gothic sepulchre of Gregorio X (14th century) and the Tarlati chapel in the right-hand aisle (1334) are also noteworthy. Above the main altar there is the ark of S.Donato, by14th century Aretine, Sienese and Florentine artista, and, in the left-hand aisle, there are precious fresco of Maria Maddalena (1465?) by Piero della Francesco and the Funerary monument of Guido Tarlati, (1330). Tha large chapel of the Madonna del Conforto, which dates back to the end of the 18th century, contains tarracottas by the Della Robbias. The Diocesan Museum and the Capitular Archivies area attached to the Cathedral.

An important testimony of 16th century military architecture, which rises up at the top of the Prato esplanade at the 305 metres above sea level. The current fortress is a massive polygonal contruction included perfectly in the town walls. It was built under the direction of Antonio da Sangallo (the Younger) and Nanni Unghero between 1538 and 1560 on the site of the old medieval cittadella, which had been razed to the ground because it was in the way of the line of fire of the cannons, and englobed most of the trapezoid Forte designed by Giuliano and Antonio (the Elder) da Sangallo at the beginning of the 16th century. The bulwarks of the east side (those of the Ponte di Soccorso and the Chiesa, which are recognizable because of their sticking out shape) and a few stretches of curtain are left from the older construction. The bastions of the west side (known as the Belvedere, Spina and Diacciaia), and the interior, consisting of an intricate network of by and large unpracticable rooms, tunnels, wells and air inlets situated at varius levels, belong to the new part.
The Fortress, which originally had three gates and was surrounded by a wide moat, was in working order until the late eighteenth century. In the year 1800, it was partially dismantled by the French troops; on the west side we can still see the damage caused by a powerful explosive.
The wide and panoramic view from the glacis dominates the town, the Aretine plain, the Arno valley, the Pratomagno massif, the Alpe di Catenaia and peaks of Poti and Lignano.

Situadet between the Cathedral and the Fortress, this is the oldest park of the town. It is also the most attractive because of its high location, its ancient trees and its position in an area of great archaelogical interest, which is yet to be exploited to the full. It occupies the surface of a vast natural depression, which, a few centuries ago, separated the two hilltops corresponding to the settements of the Cathedral and the Fortress. During the course of the centuries, the area filled up and, from beginning of the 19th century, it was turned into a public garden and used for concerts, horse races, aerostatic shows and fireworks.
It reached its current size in the first half of the present century - stretching from porta Stufi to the southernmost bastion of the Fortress (near which archaelogical remains from the Roman period are visible). The marble monument to Francesco Petrarca, by Alessandro Lazzerini, at the centre of the park, dates back to 1928.

Completely built of sandstone and situated between corso Italia and the Piazza Grande behind, this is one of the largest and most attractive Romanesque "pievi" (parish churches) in Tuscany. The construction of this majestic building, which is an example of the architecture of the earliest medieval nucleus of Arezzo, is tied to the origins of the Commune. It was begun in the second half of the 12th century on the remains of a church that went back to the years 1000, traces of which remain in the portal in via di Seteria, but it was not completed until the first decades of the 14th century; alterations and restorations were carried out in the 16th century, 19th century and in our own time.
The Romanesque facade was originally simple, but, with the rise of Pisan influence, a series of blind arches surmounted by three sets of horizontally crowned porticos were added to the lower floor. There is a wealth of sculptures of various origins: worthy of note are the 13th century composition dedicated to the Madonna in the lunette of the main portal and the basrelief from the same period portraying the passing of the months. The campanile dalle cento buche (hundred holed belltower, 1330) offers an unusual contrast to the horizontal movement of the facade. It is so called because of the 40 Romanesque double arched mullioned windows, divided into five orders, which, together with the long lateral buttress, accentuate the tower's upward thrust (59 metres).
The interior, whose structure is Romanesque, is divided into a nave and two aisles, which end in one very wide apse, with slightly ogival pre-Gothic colonnades and old presbytery, built above a crypt and arbitrarily redone in recent years; the famous polyptych (Madonna with Child, Annunciation, Assumption), painted in 1320 by Pietro Lorenzetti for bishop Guido Tarlati, the fresco of the Saints Francesco and Domenico by an early 14th century artist of Giotto's school; the Chapel of the Sacrament and the reliquary-bust (1346) of bishop Donato, the town's Christian patron.

The Museum is housed in the former Olivetan convent, founded in 1323, that was built directly over the ruins of the Roman Amphitheatre: hence, the curios curved design. Damages by bombs during the Second World War, in its modern re-systemisation it offers a picture of ancient history of the city and the territory. The Crater of Euphronios, an Attic vase of the end of the 6th c. BC, is remarkable: it testified to the wealth and high cultural level reached during that age by the wealthy classes of the Arezzo area, who were in a position to appreciate and acquire a work realised by one of the greatest pottery decorators of the age. The crater is a capacious vase with a wide mouth, made for mixing wine and water in accordance with the Greek usage of the symposium: the presence of such a precious vase and one for such a specific use indicates that the practice of the symposium was present in the high society of the area, as an occasion of encounter and also as a stutus symbol. Of great artistic quality and also linked to the symposium is the Attic amphora of the school of the Painter of Dinos from Casalta (end of the 5th c. BC). Together with the somewath older Attic stamnos of the Painter of Danae from Alberoro, it testifies to the continuing wealth of the land-owner classes of the fertile Valdichiana. It is very probable that these and other Attic products were imported through the Greco-Etruscan port of Spina, on the Po delta, and from there arrived overland in Arezzo across the Apennine passes. The large disk inscribed in stone that can be seen in the following rooms constitutes an additional indication of the vitality of these activities: it comes from the Estruscan sanctuary of Pieve a Socana, in the Casentino, is datable to the 5th c. BC, and bears an Etruscan inscription that says it was offered by an exponent of a gens (family) the founder of which had himself called ''the Greek''. Of great interest is the collection of Aretine ceramics, the so-called ''coralline'': a typical product of the city which, between the 1th century BC and 1th century AD, flooded the market of the entire Roman empire with clay vases that imitaded those made of metal (silver) in shape, relief decoration, polish and perhaps even sound. In the display cabinets can be seen the punches and dies utilised for realising the mass-production of these items: industrial products, but of extraordinary refinement. The fragments of Arezzo ceramics decorated in relief were sougth after by artists already in the Middle Ages, and Donatello probably had the idea of his stiacciato relief from them. The Toga-clad Fifure (1th c. BC) also speaks of the Roman city. It decorated a monumental tomb recently discovered along Via Vittorio Veneto. Lastly, a Chrysographic Male Portrait deserves careful examination: this is a miniature realised on very thin gold and silver foil, and sealed between two pieces of glass (third quarter of the 3nd c. AD).
Via Margaritone, 10
Phone: 0575/20882

The Museum is housed in the Bruni-Ciocchi del Monte Palace, which Donato, son of humanist Leonardo Bruni, had built during the middle of the 15th century. The courtyard in early renaissance style is both charming and severe; the wide baroque grand staircase is pompous. The collections there offer a good panorama of art in the Arezzo territory during medieval and modern times. Of particular importance are the collections of ancient arms and maiolicas, the latter having been donated to the Commune by Vincenzo Funghini, as well as the collections of seals, mercantile tesseras and coins. As it is impossible to list all the prominent works, we shall limit ourselves to brief annotations. The St Francis by Margarito d'Arezzo was painted around 1260, a generation after the death of the Saint (in 1226): it is, therefore, one of the oldest pictures, perhaps the closter one to his physical features, even is, for this period, we cannot consider it a portrait as we mean it today. The two paintings of St Roch by Bartolomeo della Gatta were done in 1479 and 1480, and propose interesting views of the city and of Piazza Grande. In the latter will be noted the houses on the upper side, demolished by the loggias, and the facade of Palazzo di Fraternità, wider and without the small wall-belfry. Over the view of the city, above the bell tower of the parish church, an imposing building stood out with a slender red-brick tower that had a crowning of white travertine, very similar to the Torre del Mangia di Siena: this was the Palazzo del Popolo with its red tower, which were both then demolished. Among the maiolicas, the rarest and most precious piece is a small porcelain flask from the chinese workshop of Jingdezhen, Yuan dynasty (ca. 1335); the hand-basin with St Matthew made of Medici porcelain is very valuable: an extremely limited production realised by Francesco I de' Medici who, in 1575-80, attempted to imitate Chinese porcelain. The hand-basin is part of a series with the Evangelists of which there remain another exsample with St Mark at the Bargello and one with St John in Lisbon. The copper helmet made in the shape of a dragon, of the third quarter of the 15th century, is uniqhe: behind the wings can be seen the small holes for insertion of the heraldic plumes. The convexity at the base of the neck was due to the sallet hitting it against it when this was raised.
Via San Lorentino, 8
Phone: 0575/409050