Piero della Francesca Trail in Tuscany: From your friend in tuscany

In Sansepolcro, Piero's hometown, there is a very good restaurant called Fiorentino . They serve a delicious Italian Onion Soup, or Zuppa di Cipolle . In honor of Piero, we present our version.

1/4 cup Extra Virgin Tuscan Olive Oil
1 pound thinly sliced sweet onions
3 large or 4 medium cloves garlic, minced
8 cups chicken stock
1 scant cup Marsala
1 sprig of finely chopped fresh sage (about 1 tablespoon)
4 to 6 slices of toasted rustic bread (these are more of a crouton)
Salt and pepper to taste
Freshly grated Pecorino cheese

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy sauce pan, and add the onions. It will take nearly a half hour to slowly caramelize them. Add the garlic just about 5 minutes before the onions are done; you just want to soften it. Add the stock, Marsala, sage, and salt and pepper. Cook slowly for 30 minutes, allowing the flavors to blend and the soup to reduce a bit. Remember, the onions and garlic are already fully cooked.

Place a crouton in the bottom of each soup bowl, and ladle the soup over. Sprinkle liberally with grated Pecorino and enjoy. This is a great treat on a cold winter evening. Serves 4 to 6.

Why do thousands of tourists travel to Tuscany each year to make the pilgrimage known as the Piero della Francesca Trail ? They come seeking to view in person the works of this great artist that they have seen so often in reproduction, to experience for themselves the moving qualities of Piero's paintings. These are the pictures that the art-loving pilgrims have read about in works such as Aldous Huxley's The Best Picture , and The Piero Della Francesca Trail by John Pope-Hennessy. Tens of thousands of visitors have flocked to Arezzo, Sansepolcro and Monterchi in Tuscany, and Urbino in Umbria to follow the Piero della Francesca Trail.

Piero della Francesca was born in 1415 in the ancient Tuscan town of Sansepolcro, where, despite his fame and frequent business in more important Italian cities, he spent his entire life. Piero had a great pride in his hometown; he held office there, and sometimes signed paintings as "Petri de Burgo" (the town also is known as Borgo San Sepolcro, or Borgo Sansepolcro).

A master of perspective, Piero wrote books on that subject, as well as on the subject of mathematics. He was indeed a scientist, but it is for the great and moving human quality of his paintings that we remember him today. Even though his mastery of geometry and perspective inform all of his works with a formal serenity that is unmatched, it is Piero's solemn, dignified human figures that are most remembered.

Many consider the best place to start the Piero Trail to be in his hometown of Sansepolcro. Here, his painting of the Resurrection has its home. This is the painting that Huxley, in an essay in his book Along the Road , called " The Best Picture ." Although a loyal son of Tuscany, Piero was a luminary in the aristocratic world of the court of Urbino. His teachings and writings on art, science and mathematics secured him a place there, and permanently changed the way the world of the early Renaissance saw itself.

Piero della Francesca's pictures tell great stories. They are enigmatic and yet somehow filled with an informing luminosity that transcends their meticulous composition and formality to move the viewer. To see them is to love them.

It is in Arezzo that Piero's most famous work reside. Here, his Legend of the True Cross fresco cycle is to be seen in the otherwise unremarkable church of S an Francesco . Piero's fresco cycle there, painted

between 1452 and 1466, is considered the epitome of quattrocento painting. Piero was obsessed by perspective, geometry and space, but these works are so spiritual in their impact that the viewer forgets their strict adherence to perspective and formal composition. The works fill three walls of San Francesco's cappella maggiore . The chapel that contains the cycle is somewhat badly lit, and the best time to view the frescoes is on sunny mornings and summer evenings.

According to one of my favorite books, Cento Citta , subtitled A Guide to the Hundred Towns of Italy , by Paul Hofmann, "Piero della Francesca's theory for decorating the friars' choir was the Legend of the True Cross by the Blessed Jacobus de Varagine, a medieval Italian churchman who wrote about biblical subjects and saints. Among the episodes illustrated by the frescoes are the death of Adam, the meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, the Annunciation, and the victory of Emperor Constantine under the sign of the Cross."

The fresco cycle has been damaged repeatedly since painted in the 1400s. It has been shot at, hit by lightning, rocked by earthquakes and burned. A recent restoration project has done much good, and it is hoped that these seminal works have been saved. To view the frescos, reservations are required. For information, visit www.pierodellafrancesca.it

As we mentioned earlier, this is the birthplace of Piero della Francesca. The town is also the home of another of his most powerful and thrilling frescoes. Full of old churches and palazzos , Sansepolcro is surrounded by walls from the 16th century that are surprisingly intact for entire long stretches. Several of Piero's works reside in Sansepolcro's Museo Civico, which was once the town hall.

Piero's Resurrection can be seen here, in the building it was painted in, in 1463, although it now rests in a room different from the one that was its original home. This is the painting Huxley was referring to in his essay, The Best Picture . He called Piero's Resurrection " the greatest picture in the world. "

Multiple other works by Piero can also be viewed. There is his polyptych, Madonna della Misericordia , and several fragments from other frescoes. Further along the same street that holds the Museo Civico , one can view Piero della Francesca's home, which he is thought to have designed himself.

The town of Sansepolcro was originally always known as Borgo di San Sepolcro , or the Town of the Holy Sepulcher . A tenth century abbey and its surrounding town sat on the site of what is now Sansepolcro's cathedral; they were erected to hold the relics of the Holy Sepulcher that two pilgrims were said to have brought from Jerusalem.

Piero's portraits of Battista Sforza and Federigo de Montefeltro can be seen in the Uffizi Gallery in Firenze, and we hope to view and write about then for an upcoming newsletter. But for now, we remain in small town Tuscany, in the hills beyond Arezzo, where Piero's Madonna del Parto resides in the small town of Monterchi .

Monterchi is, of course, most famous for its place on the Piero della Francesca Trail. In the Monterchi cemetery, Piero's gorgeous pregnant Madonna had her original home in the cemetery's tiny chapel. The painting is now kept in a easy to find, sign-posted building on the Via della Regalia. Visitor hours are from Tuesday through Sunday, 9 to 1, and 2 to 6. There is a charge for admission.

The Madonna del Parto was painted by Piero in 1445 and many believe that she is the only depiction of the pregnant Madonna in the final days of her ninth month. Two angels hold back draping in order to show her bulging belly, while the weary Madonna gazes out at visitors in painful resignation. It is no wonder that visitors from around the globe flock to see this unique and beautiful vision of the Madonna.

It is easy to visit the stops along the Piero della Francesca Trail from our villas and apartments. This is a worthy trek for art lovers, and we urge you to consider it.