Italy · Toscana · Cities of art
the sloping square, the fresco cycle of Piero della Francesca and the goldsmiths' workshops
Arezzo is visited from above: the old centre sits on the hill of San Donato, and from the car parks below you go up on the escalators, which leave you a few steps from the Duomo. Up there are the sloping square of the re-enactments, the fresco cycle of Piero della Francesca in San Francesco and the goldsmiths' workshops that made the fortune of the city. For anyone travelling by motorhome it is a convenient stage between Florence, Siena and the Casentino, with two stopping places a few hundred metres apart.
Sleeping
Two answers a few hundred metres apart: the Tarlati car park, paid and with no services, and the equipped municipal area, with filling and emptying.
Via Guido Tarlati 42, 52100 Arezzo (AR)
a handy, well lit car park for visiting the city, with no water or waste facilities and no electricity. About ten minutes on foot away are the escalators that climb to the old centre and leave you near the Duomo.
Via Pier Luigi da Palestrina 26, 52100 Arezzo (AR)
the equipped area of the town council, open every day, 24 hours a day. Filling up with drinking water is charged for, emptying grey and black waste is free; there is no electric hook-up. The surface is concrete and block paving.
Getting around
Seeing
Seven stops inside the old centre, all a few minutes from one another: the last two lie in the upper part, on the hill of San Donato, and are kept for the end. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
Square · free entry · 43.46470, 11.88430
the historic heart of the city, trapezoidal in shape and with a floor that slopes sharply, a legacy of the medieval layout. On the upper side the Palazzo delle Logge, a Renaissance work by the Aretine Giorgio Vasari, with the portico that carries the whole square; opposite it the Palazzo della Fraternita dei Laici, between Gothic and Renaissance, with its bell tower and its astronomical clock; on the north west side the stone apse of the Pieve di Santa Maria Assunta. This is where the Giostra del Saracino is run and where the Fiera Antiquaria is held. It is also one of the settings of Life Is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni.
Church · 43.46684, 11.88315
the cathedral stands on the highest point of the city. Begun in 1278 and finished centuries later, with a neo-Gothic front of the early twentieth century, it is Tuscan Gothic architecture. The interior has three naves and holds the Maddalena by Piero della Francesca, in the left aisle, the Arca di San Donato in the middle of the presbytery, the coloured windows of Guillaume de Marcillat and the cenotaph of Guido Tarlati.
Church · 43.46466, 11.88094
a front of stone and brick left unfinished, a single nave, and inside the fresco cycle of the Legend of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca, in the Cappella Bacci: the story of the wood of the Cross told with a light and a perspective that set the standard. Besides the cycle, a painted crucifix of the thirteenth century and works by local artists.
Walk · free entry · 43.46288, 11.88037
the main street of the old centre, the ancient cardo of the Roman and medieval city. Shops, historic cafés and buildings of different periods, and along the way the apse of the Pieve di Santa Maria. It is the walk that crosses the centre from one end to the other.
Museum · 43.46531, 11.88377
the gold museum of Arezzo, devoted to the goldsmith tradition of the city. It shows pieces that trace the stylistic development and the craftsmanship of the place, some of them made together with international artists and designers.
Castle · 43.46552, 11.88693
military architecture of the sixteenth century wanted by Cosimo I de' Medici, built over the remains of the Etruscan acropolis and the medieval citadel. From the pointed bastions you see the city, the valley of the Arno and the mountains around. Since the restoration it can be visited in full, and it is an archaeological site too, with Roman and medieval finds.
Park · free entry · 43.46675, 11.88438
the green lung of the old centre, between the Duomo and the Fortezza. English lawns and tree lined avenues, and in the middle the marble monument to Francesco Petrarca. It is where the people of Arezzo go to walk, and the right shade halfway through a visit.
When
Next: Fiera Antiquaria · 31 Oct - 1 Nov
one of the most important in Italy, with exhibitors from all over the country: Piazza Grande becomes the largest open air antiques fair in the country.
craft stalls in Piazza Grande, in the medieval heart of the city.
a historical re-enactment in Piazza Grande, with knights in costume challenging one another. It is run twice a year.
Remember
Arezzo · part two
and then?
What to do, what to taste, and where to go tomorrow.
What we did starting from here, ordered by driving time.
The most typical dish, to cook again at home.
Looking
6 shots from our visit. Tap one to see it large.
