Anghiari

Anghiari is a small hill town in eastern Tuscany's Arezzo province, enclosed within 13th-century walls and listed among "I Borghi più belli d'Italia" (Italy's Most Beautiful Villages). It gives its name to the Battle of Anghiari (29 June 1440), in which Florence and its allies defeated Milanese forces and secured Florentine dominance over the region; despite involving thousands of troops, the battle is famously said to have produced only a single fatality. Leonardo da Vinci was later commissioned to paint the battle on a wall of Florence's Palazzo Vecchio; the mural was never completed and is now known only through his preparatory sketches and copies by other artists.

Anghiari is reached by road from Arezzo and Sansepolcro, in the Upper Tiber Valley.

The historic walled centre is small and hilly, and is explored on foot.

The town's 13th-century defensive walls and its steep, stepped medieval lanes are the main draw, along with the battlefield site below the town where the 1440 battle was fought.

Anghiari has a long tradition of antique-furniture restoration and woodworking, along with weaving and basketwork; the town's narrow streets carry a number of antique dealers and craft workshops.

Arezzo and Sansepolcro, both in the Upper Tiber Valley, are the nearest larger towns.