Anghiari’s Mostra Mercato

Southern Tuscany hilltown gem, Anghiari, turns into an artisan market at the end of April for the Mostra Mercato dell’Artigianato della Valtiberina.

This “Show-and-Sell of the Tiber Valley Artisans” festival fills the medieval vaulted walkways, frescoed Renaissance civic buildings and noble palazzi, ancient olive oil and wine cellars – and even a Roman cistern and Roman wine press area – with the crafts and creations of artists and artisans from all over central Italy – and particularly, this Tiber Valley area.

Some artists and artisans set up their stands right along the fortified medieval walls…like the first painter we met on our Anghiari stroll.

[lcaption]Modena balsamic producers set up their stand in a vaulted area of the medieval walls[/lcaption]

[lcaption]….and an artisan of wooden furniture, too, showed off his craft in a vaulted area of the medieval walls[/lcaption]

[lcaption]Loom-woven textiles and ceramics on display in a stall of long ago…[/lcaption]

[lcaption]..and not far away, an artisanal shoemaker[/lcaption]

[lcaption]Renaissance frescoes backdrop the artisan crafts in a Renaissance palazzo[/lcaption]

Young artisans were at work, too: a student group from the local liceo scientifico sculpted under guidance of their professore in the Piazza del Popolo. The students sculpted images from the 15th-c Battle of Anghiari, immortalized in a painting of Da Vinci (now lost).

….and then we heard rolling drums and proud figures in Renaissance dress, parchments in hand, acted out the call to the Battle of Anghiari right there from the window of the 14th- c tribunal, Palazzo Pretorio (now City Hall):

Over fifty artisans filled Anghiari to “show-and-sell’: impossible to see them all. But part of the pleasure was simply wandering the charming labyrinthine backstreets to find them: