while you're ahead…

This morning I practiced one of my favourite things… the art of getting lost…

I dropped my brother off to the train station and by 7.30am I was wondering the still empty streets of Arezzo in complete solitude, I had a cappuccino (no chocolate powder on top, don’t be a tourist!) watching pigeons go their pigeon way, I eavesdropped locals discussing the freshly started football league whilst drinking espresso propped up at the bar counter, I walked on deserted pavements, I popped into every church that was open, I looked at paintings, read about history, touched ancient walls, explored.  I watched the city waking up.

Two hours.

It was amazing.

Don’t get me wrong, I love travelling with Mr M and the boys, but it is a totally different feeling to being alone with one’s thoughts, wondering and wandering, without a particular destination… just a few hours to stroll aimlessly in whichever direction I wanted.

Doesn’t it sound wonderful?

The following is only a taster of what I saw.

The Church of Mercy.  (If you’ve ever been to Italy you know that trying to sightseeing without seeing any churches is a futile exercise.  Just give in and enjoy the varied plenitude of styles and sizes)

Baroque style, although the first ‘version’ was built in 1348 (in England it was the time of the Black Death… I only know this because of my excellent revision skills when helping No 3 in his end of year exams.)

Next to the church a bit of street art:

which was next to this:

and then only down the road we were back to old things… but not as old as the bubonic plague.

On the same road another church, Chiesa della SS Annunziata (1490, built after the Madonna statue was seen crying real tears)

I loved the different flags on the building highlighting the different quarters of the city.

Badia delle SS Flora and Lucilla, was closed.  I was totally intrigued by the random facade though.  It’s like they got the door wrong and then started again or something…

Chiesa di San Francesco, which contains the masterpiece of by Piero della Francesca.

A lot of the frescos have been lost but what’s there is worth a visit.  It must have been an incredible sight at the time.

And then more walking here and there.  All the way to the Duomo.

Of course… all this was fuelled by delicious cappuccinos… no chocolate of course… I’m not a tourist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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