Arezzo and Anghiari

Trip Start Jan 31, 2006

Trip End May 30, 2006

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Flag of Italy Arezzo, Italy
Sunday, March 19, 2006

We took the train to Arezzo early yesterday morning and walked around the town for a few hours, which was a really small "city" with some beautiful churches, nice caffes, and a really huge park called Parco il Prato. We had some trouble finding the park (Matthew: NICOLE had trouble finding the park....not me...I found it just fine once I stopped following Nicole), but once we got there it was beautiful, and we got lucky because yesterday was one of the first clear, sunny days in a while in the area. After some time walking around, we went into the Chiesa di San Francesco, where we were able to see a famous cycle of frescoes done by Piero della Francesca.
After taking the bus to Anghiari, where Stephanie greeted us and took us to this wonderful restaurant...we sat outside eating for HOURS on a terrace overlooking Tuscan and Umbrian landscape and fields. It was magnificent! The restaurant, called Locanda al Castello di Sorci, had a fixed menu which meant we didn't even have to order...they just supplied us with (endless...) wine and kept bringing food to the table for about three hours! We were served fresh polenta with sauce, homemade tagliatelli pasta with sauce, meat platters, cheese platters, bruschetta, pate toast, bread, salad, and a dessert wine with biscuits to top it all off! Needless to say, we were all completely stuffed and didn't even need to eat anything for the rest of the day!
After the marathon lunch, Stephani started to drive us around the small towns of the area, which were beautiful and quaint.

Nicole and Stephanie at the restaurant

She showed us her really nice apartment, which was loaded up with tons of books (I LOVED that...), and when we went driving around she took us to see a very rare painting, also done by Piero della Francesca, of the Madonna right before giving birth...it is a rarity in that Mary is depicted during her pregnancy, and Stephanie was explaining that it is interesting that such a tiny town has this artistic treasure. Afterwards, she took us to see her Umbrian Villa!!! She has been renovating the house for five years, and it is absolutely breathtaking, with magnificent views. She's still in the process of putting the finishing touches on, but expects to move in this summer. It's a beautiful house and we can't wait to see what it looks like when it's all finished!
After driving and touring around a little bit more, we spent some time in her apartment listening to music and reading through some of the travel books she had. She was nice enough to offer for us to stay overnight, but we had to get back because of midterms (and because we're going to an Eros Ramazzati concert tonight). We're hoping to go visit her again soon, and she wants to take us to a restaurant with even better food....!!!! We can't wait; we had such an awesome time hanging out with her and are definitely hoping to go back to Anghiari.

Well, we're off to see Eros...Next weekend, the Vidiris will be coming and we can't wait to show them around Florence. We're also going to take trips to Rome, Naples, Sorrento, and Capri...it'll be awesome!

Love and miss you all!!

Nicole and Matthew