Sansepolcro - 27 April

Here in my room at a BnB called Relais Palazzo Magi, an old palace redecorated. Huge bed as you can see. It's Sunday afternoon in Sansepolcro, it's very quiet. Most of the locals are inside finishing Sunday lunch and preparing for the afternoon snooze (or already snoozing). I've had a magnificent meal of roast duck (the best meal I've ever had) at a great restaurant here, Osteria Toscana Borgo Antico, http://www.osteriaborgoantico.it/ so I'll be doing as the Sansepolcrini do in a few minutes.

Went to see the Piero della Francesca Resurrection at the Museo Civico this morning. It really is magnificent, and I've wanted to see it for a long time, but never been in the vicinity of Sansepolcro before. I love the expression on his face, no namby-pamby Jesus this. It's also the only known depiction of the resurrected Christ who wears a pink robe (all the others are white), to symbolise the new dawn of Christianity. Piero's altarpiece of the Madonna della Misericordia is here too. Sadly the original surround is long gone, but all the paintings have been found and brought back together. This was a common fate with altarpieces; as they depicted different saints or scenes they were broken up and sold during the internecine wars so common in Renaissance times or dispersed to other churches quite easily. 

Here's Piero's house

There's a fascinating museum here called the Aboca Museum, a museum of  apothecary and the medicinal use of herbs. Smells wonderful. So much equipment for distilling, drying and harvesting, it was a big industry here in Tuscany, which grows herbs so well.

Needing glass for retorts, metal for boiling, baskets and tins for storing, the apothecary's art supported a whole lot of other industries too. Now we have huge ugly factories to do the work.

The majolica  storage jars are particularly beautiful

Weird alembic for distilling

Next door, and leaning against the wall of the Museum is the church of San Rufino

Statue of Piero in the little park across the street from his house.

This is a sculpture outside the lace-making museum. Sansepolcro is famed for its handmade lace. (Sadly the museum was closed both days I was here)

The gate to Florence. There is another gate at the other end of the historical city which leads to Rome.

My room is accessed through the billiard room. 

Sansepolcro is a pleasant town, not touristy, a town you could live in.  This part of Tuscany is beautiful, hilly and wooded, with cultivated river plains, very green now in the springtime. I came through on the bus from Arezzo yesterday, past Anghiari, another magnificent little town. Saw two wild boar just outside Anghiari, there are many in the forests here. Never seen them before, so that was a plus. More Sansepolcro tomorrow.