Villas in Tuscany & Umbria Since 1998

Rich and intense was its life in the Middle Age; the rich Aretino society of the 13th century was divided between the bickering Guelfs and the Ghibelines. The Guelfs were supported by the Florentines who defeated the Ghibelines at Campaldino in 1289, helped by none other than the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri. The surroundings are rich with traces of this poet. In 1384 Arezzo was almost sold to Florence and from that time its history was as a Florentine republic first, then Signoria and Granducato di Toscana later. The Medici Family have left their trace in the ’500 fortresses in the north of the town.

In the centre if you walk along the ‘Corso’ (main street of the old town) or the Medieval streets that go to the San Donato Church, you get the feeling of being part of Piero Della Francesca’s fresco "The legend of the real cross". This church with its magnificent interior was built in the second half of 1200 on request of the Franciscan friars. The Pieve di Santa Maria (XII-XIII cent.) that contains a polyptic by Pietro Lorenzetti is a very important church of the Romanic period. In the San Domenico Church there is another exceptional piece, the Crucifix of Cimabue. In this town Francesco Petrarca was born, and a few centuries later, Giorgio Vasari Michelangelo was born in nearby Caprese in 1475.