In the summer of 1937 Clarissa accompanied Julian Asquith (grandson of the Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith) and his mother, Katharine, on a tour, mainly by third class rail, across the Apennines in the Tuscany region of Italy. Among other artistic treasures, she saw for the first time the fifteenth century frescos by Piero della Francesca at Arezzo, one of which, "The Queen of Sheba Adoring the Holy Wood" ("c."1452), she nominated in 2010 as her favourite painting: "in an age of violence he went on painting clearly and calmly".