Arezzo

rezzo arose in pre-etrusca in an area inhabited since prehistory, as shown by the discovery of stone tools and the so-called “Elm Man“, from Paleolithic, occurred near the hamlet of’Olmo during the excavation of a short tunnel on the Rome-Florence railway line in 1863.

The area located in the northern part of the Valdichiana where the Casentino and the Valdarno meet,it is in fact a natural passage for those who want to cross the Apennines. There is also news of stable pre-Etruscan settlements in an area not far from the current urban area, the hill of San Cornelio, where traces of a wall of difficult dating have been found because they are superimposed on the mighty Roman walls. Instead, the Etruscan settlement was built on the top of the San Donato hill, occupied by the current city. It is known that the Etruscan Arezzo, call Aritim (latino Arezzo), already existed in 9th century BC.

Arezzo was then one of the main cities Etruscan together with Cortona, Chiusi and Orvieto within the Clanis Valley and most likely home to one of the 12 lucumonie. The Valle del Clanis certainly played a prominent role for the Etruscans given the importance of the four cities that were located there, proof is also the fact that the so-called "Pan Etruscan games" took place near the cliff of Orvieto that overlooked the confluence of the Clanis on the Tiber. At that point the Tiber enormously increased its flow by receiving the waters from Monte Falterona, (Throne of Heaven, Etruscan toponym),across the Arno that continued into the Clanis and from Monte Fumaiolo, across the Tuscan-Umbrian branch of the Tiber. Works of art of exceptional value date back to this period, as the Chimera, preserved a Florence, whose image characterizes the city so much that it almost becomes a second symbol and the large necropolis of Poggio del Sole, formed in the sixth century BC. and used until the Roman age.

Petrarch and Michelangelo, they are just two of the many artists to whom the splendid city of Arezzo gave birth. Characterized by churches, monuments and sites of historical and cultural interest, Arezzo became even more famous after the shooting of the masterpiece "Life is beautiful", by the well-known director and actor Roberto Benigni.