Cortona is located 500 meters above the sea-level, placed on a hill area and dominating the Chiana valley. It was an Etruscan domain and it is not a certainty when it became Roman: it was the year 450 when the Gothic conquered it: during the thirteenth century it became a free commune. Durind the year 1258 it was fired and plundered by the city of Arezzo. Cortona could regain its autonomy only three years later. Later on (1325) Cortona was ruled by the Ranieri Casali Signoria and in 1409 by Ladislao, the king of Naples. Beginning from 1411 Cortona was given up to Florence. The town came on an old Etruscan area: it is possible to recognize the big walls put under the medieval ones. Cortona was well known thanks to the bronze production: we mention the 16 arms chandelier ( V century a.C.), unique for size and decoration, kept in the local Etruscan Academy Museum.

In the surroundings you can find important tobs: the Pitagora Tanella, a circular etruscan mausoleum with a vault covered cella and the Angori Tanella, with an inside Greek cross cella. At the foot of the town it is still posible to visit some tumulus called “Melons”, due to their shape and also many finds, as the well known Tabula Cortonensis, a bronze table with one of the longest Etruscan inscription ever found (Museum of the Etruscan Academy).Cortona keeps a medieval appearance and an urban setting up, but the main buildings were reconstructed during the fifteenth-sixteenth century: the Cathedral, rebuilt by Giuliano from Sangallo and Cristofanello Sensi: the Magistrate and Town hall buildings, which are still keeping the original parts of the thirteenth-century, and so on. St. Domenico church (XIV-XV century) is Gothic with just one nave, ending up with three rectilinnear apses: St. Francesco church (1248) exposes Cigoli, Pietro from Latina and Luca Signorelli paintings.