The town of Subbiano is in the province of Arezzo and it has a population of almost 6000 inhabitants. It has a rich environmental and artistic heritage and it still keeps its ancient castle. The church of Santa Maria della Visitazione and the Palazzo Subbiani-Ducci can be visited, too.

The town's place name derives from the Latin "sub Ianum" and it recalls the foundation of the ancient Roman village under the god Janus's protection. Yet, the first documented news on the village dates to 1119, when its then owner, Grifone di Grifone, ceded it to Albertino, an ancestor of the Albertini family of Chitignano. Nevertheless, an imperial bull issued by Henry IV and dating to 1191 stated that the Albertini only had one half of the court and of the castle.
Frederick II handed over this half to the Guidi in 1220. They left their place to the Tarlati, a family that had the warrior and bishop Guido Tarlati as its most important member. His brother, Pier Saccone, was the man who gave Subbiano to the Florentine Republic at the time when the Tuscan city was going to annex all the Arezzo's territory definitively.
In a sudden reversal, the inhabitants of Subbiano rebelled against Florence in 1343. A first positive outcome of the rebellion allowed them to chase away the hated Duke d'Atente, a lord sent there by the Florentines, and they also obtained the secession from the Republic. In 1384, when Arezzo had already become a Florentine property, Subbiano had to surrender again and definitively to Florence. Thus, it entered the Tuscan Grand Duchy and the Kingdom of Italy annexed it in 1860.
As said above, the ancient stronghold can still be visited. The church of Santa Maria della Visitazione rises just in front of it. It dates to the XIII century and it had often changed in height and length between the XVI and the XVII centuries. In 1857, a bell-tower was built near it. It is possible to admire the fresco of the "Incoronazione di Maria" and the "Deposizione", both by the painter Giovanni Bassan, inside the church. In the apse, there is a XVIII-century wooden crucifix that the inhabitants of Subbiano worship much still today.