From Pesaro, I moved on to Arezzo in Tuscany. This town lies between Rome and Firenze, and I remember passing through its train station a few years back when I saw a Sardarji there and got very excited about that. Arezzo is what you expect a small Italian town to be – small, steep, winding, cobbled streets with clothes hanging to dry, with matronly mammas shouting across these alleys, romeos strutting around on their vespas, people milling around the Piazzas - I immediately fell in love with Arezzo.
Originally, the town was famous for the Legend of the True Cross frescoes by Piero Della Francesca. This fresco cycle, painted in the 15th century, is one of the finest examples of early Renaissance art. But now the town is more famous as the location for a lot of the shooting for my favourite film, Benigni’s La Vita e Bella. Numerous plaques dot the town reminding the visitor of this fact. The largest square in town, Piazza Grande, is immediately recognisable as being one of the locations where the film was shot. Giorgio Vasari had a house in Arezzo, and the Casa di Vasari is another one of those obligatory touristy visits in town.
One evening I decided to treat myself to an authentic Tuscan dinner and landed at this posh-looking restaurant La Tavernetta. The place was run by a lothario looking man and I felt quite bad for him as he seemed to be running the place alone. However, I needn’t have (felt bad for him) as after a while a rather attractive-looking assistant came along. Anyway, I decided to go completely Italian (or Tuscan) and ordered some bruschette from the menu (he presented a platter of five different kinds which were actually quite tasty!). When the time came to order the main course, I ordered a tagliata a pepe verde (tagliata in green pepper). In my misplaced confidence I assumed I was ordering tagliatelle pasta. What I ended up ordering was tagliata, which is grilled beef steak. So when this attractive lady brought the grilled beef, I must confess that I did a rather good job of hiding my utter disappointment. To my further credit, I did try to eat it. ‘Try’ being the operative word as the tagliata was a totally taste-less and unchewable mass of disgusting meat. There were 8 pieces and I struggled for quite a while with my first piece. However, I did not want to disappoint the lothario and his attractive assistant and was determined to finish – I kept on chewing chewing and chewing but the damn thing would just not go down my throat. It was then that Mr. Bean came to the rescue and provided me with an idea. I promptly took out a polythene bag from my backpack and laid it on my lap and when the lothario and his assistant weren’t looking, there were a few deft manoeuvres and my dish was empty. And I kept a straight innocent face during the entire manoeuvre. I then beat a hasty retreat from the restaurant (after forking out a ridiculously high undeserved sum) and went to the nearest bar for my trusted pizza al taglio.
However, for the other two nights I was in Arezzo, I managed to make up for this disaster by having dinner at the Café Costanti. A nice café but they had the most amazing buffet (5€ only!) with the best possible spreads of bruschette, pasta, and nibbles. I gorged myself there and made up for the tagliatelle-tagliata catastrophe.
Apart from that, there was not much to do on X’mas day in Arezzo, so I took the 40-minute train to Firenze (my favourite city) and spent the day there. I wandered around the empty (off season, so no tourists) streets of Firenze and visited the usual suspects – Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, Battistereo, and Casa di Dante. All in all, a day well spent in one of the prettiest cities in the world (minus the tourists). One interesting thing I noted was the far-increased prevalence of ‘forever locks’ (the locks that lovers put on bridges) despite the threat of €160 fines.
From Arezzo, I also visited Montepulciano for the day. Say Montepulciano and the first word that comes to mind is ‘vino’. Montepulciano, apart from being known for its vino nobile, is the highest Tuscan town (at a UK-type height of 600m!). One gets amazing views of the Tuscan countryside from all parts of this town. The highest bit of town is the Piazza Grande which really looks medieval (complete with a Duomo and a rather ancient-looking well!).
A couple of young tourist girls, when they entered the Piazza, started screaming loudly. They seemed excited – I couldn’t figure out why. The Piazza was pretty but not that pretty. After taking a few obligatory photos of the Piazza I entered the corner bar for my fix of espresso (I was becoming addicted to it!). On the wall of this café were photos that explained to me why those young girls squealed as they entered the Piazza. One of the ‘Twilight’ vampire movies was shot in Montepulciano and in that Piazza.
The most famous restaurant of Montepulciano is Caffé Poliziano – a beautiful coffee room with excellent views of the Tuscan country side. I settled there for a cozy lunch. As I left the café, I noticed a commotion outside – 2 fire engines were parked and it seemed that the entire town of Montepulciano had gathered there to witness the tamasha. There didn’t seem to be a fire so it must have been a cat!
I then set about exploring the narrow, steep, winding, and often confusing, streets of Montepulciano after which I treated myself to a couple of glasses of that vino nobile With a light head, I then headed back home.
