City of Piero della Francesca, La Vita è Bella, and Italy's greatest antiques market
Arezzo is an Etruscan and Roman city in eastern Tuscany that punches well above its weight culturally: the Basilica of San Francesco holds Piero della Francesca's fresco cycle Legend of the True Cross (1452–1466), considered one of the greatest works of the Italian Renaissance. Roberto Benigni filmed La Vita è Bella (1997) on its medieval streets. On the first Sunday of every month the Piazza Grande transforms into the largest antiques market in Italy. The Saracen Joust every June and September brings the medieval quarter to life.
Arezzo (Etruscan: Aritim) was one of the wealthiest Etruscan cities, famous for fine terracotta Arretine ware that was exported across the Roman world. The city produced three Renaissance giants: Piero della Francesca, Giorgio Vasari (who painted the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence and wrote the first art history book), and the poet Petrarch. Arezzo was a free commune throughout the medieval period, caught between Florence and Siena, before Florence finally conquered it in 1384. The city was significantly bombed in World War II but its historic centre survived largely intact.