Opposites attract me

The towns of Sansepolcro and Anghiari are both in the Arezzo province, and both are wonderful places to take a walk and spend some enjoyable time. Despite those similarities, the two small cities couldn't be more different. 

First, Sansepolcro is absolutely flat and shaped like a perfect rectangle with tall outer walls. Its streets form an easy-to-navigate grid pattern. Anghiari is built atop a steep hill and its profile is spiked with turrets and towers of all shapes and sizes. Its piazzas are tippy and cobbled streets run up and down in every direction, like so many writhing snakes. This is Anghiari.

When you are in Sansepolcro you spend your time looking within the walls for the next museum, the next historic palazzo, the next boutique. When in Anghiari, around every medeival turn and through ancient tunels are long vistas backed by cloud-topped mountains, greens, grays, peeks of sun.

In Sansepolcro we continued our quest to see the works of Piero della Francesca, who lived and worked in the town. Some of his most famous works are in the Museo Civico, including the "Resurrection," considered a masterpiece, which he painted on the wall of the Town Hall council chamber. The small museum also contains works by other artists, but none quite as exciting as the Pieros. Piero also had a house there, which is now a museum. Here it is.

Here is the lace-making school. When I peeked inside the windows, stations with all the lace tools were set up waiting for the next set of students to arrive.

In Anghiari, I wanted to see the Busatti linen factory, which I have known about for many years, since having bought some beautiful jacquard guest towels at the shop in Cortona in 2000. Busatti still weaves jacquards in patterns from the Renaissance in pure linen and cotton and we were lucky enough to get an insider's tour of the ancient weaving factory by Livio Sassolini, an 8th generation Busatti (mother's side) who was in the shop when we asked where the factory was.

 He happily walked us through the oily-smelling clanging machinery and explained the process. Now whenever I look at my pretty blue guest towels I will think about the smells and the sounds of the place where they were woven.