Overnight in Arezzo

Arrezzo Day 16 31 May 2009

We are reminded en route to Arezzo how unforgiving the autostrade are.  We mis-interpret a road sign and it is many km before the next exit.  However, the drive through the country side as we back track to Arezzo is pleasant, but wet.

Ancient Arezzo

It is still a new experience arriving somewhere with no idea where we are going to stay.  Trudging around a new town in the rain is not quite the image we had when we planned this, but it is not too long before we locate a hotel close to the station to enable our exit to be easy tomorrow.

We decide to return the car a day early to avoid expensive parking in Arrezzo and head off to the rental car agency.  We arrive to find it is closed and it will also be closed tomorrow.  Many businesses have closed for a 4 day weekend, even though the public holiday is not until Tuesday.  After a quick phone call to Hertz, we leave the car there and stuff the rental agreement with the keys into a sort of letter box outside the offices and hope this is the last we hear of it.  It all seems very risky to us.

While Kathy has a rest, I decide to explore Arezzo in the rain and walk up to the "Centro Storico".  I am not as drawn to the "feel" of Arezzo.  It feels a bit less friendly than some places and the people are very proud of their history, which is extensive and quite amazing. There is a funeral going on today and there are people dressed in full costume with spears, chain mail armour and full coloured outfits.  Quite amazing.  It is filled with churches, some of them very ancient and some under repair.  I was very moved with a sign in one of them that read:

"Visiting Friends

We are glad to welcome you.

This church is a testimony, a sign we were given by the previous generations

A sign of their skills

A sign of their faith in their God

Here they used to bring all their joy and sufferings

Here they celebrated life, accepted death

And hoped in resurrection

Here they used to honour the presence of Jesus Christ

Visiting Friends

This church is still the place for prayer,

Meditation and gathering of the present

SS Annunziata Christian Community

May you use your heart and your eyes both

To contemplate the beauty of human work

And to sense the discreet presence of God

Visiting Friends

Our hope is that you retain this visit as a moment

Of contemplation and peace"

That evening we take the advice of the concierge in the hotel for a restaurant he recommends.  It is outstanding.  We drink the house wine from an earthen-wear jug that we would use for milk and drink it from glass tumblers.  The place is filled with literally hundreds of bottles of wine on all the shelves and the owner stands behind us and is attached via tubes to an oxygen machine that he breathes from.  He is not a well person, but this restaurant has been and is his life that is clear and all his family are around him to do the work.  A few tables away from us a couple have brought their dog with then and the little chap sits on a chair at their table and I watch as they feed him tid bits!  If only I had brought my camera....Home made sausages and fried potatoes with lashings of garlic.  Hmmmm...