Anghiari

About 6 miles down the mountain from Caprese lies the defensive hilltop town of Anghiari. Right on the border of Tuscany, and hence on the edge of Medici control, the town has always been of strategic importance and on 29 June 1440, a famous battle took place here between the Florentines and Milanese. Although a famous event, immortalised in a now lost Leonardo fresco (once in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence), only 1 person was actually killed (in an accidental fall off his horse!). The event is marked today by a foot race up the hill from the battlefield to the main square of Anghiari - a great excuse for a festa and fancy dress! Today the sleepy town stands sentinel overlooking the flat plain of the Tiber valley with it's patchwork fields of sunflowers and tobacco plants.