Arezzo is a city of about 97,000 in eastern Tuscany, and it holds a fresco cycle that belongs in the same conversation as anything in Florence while receiving a small fraction of the visitors. Piero della Francesca painted the Legend of the True Cross in the choir of San Francesco between roughly 1452 and 1466, and it is one of the works that defines the early Renaissance: still, geometric, strangely lit, with a Battle of Heraclius and a Dream of Constantine that painters have been studying ever since.
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The practical point comes with it. Entry to the chapel is timed and capped at small groups for conservation, in slots of around half an hour, and it sells out. Book it before you travel, because the rest of Arezzo is pleasant and this is the reason to come.
The city is also where art history began, in a sense. Giorgio Vasari was born here in 1511, and his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects was the first systematic attempt to write the history of Italian art. His own house, which he designed and decorated himself, is a museum.
The centre is built on a slope, with the Piazza Grande tilting noticeably downhill, surrounded by a Renaissance loggia Vasari designed, medieval palazzi and the curved apse of a Romanesque church. Twice a year the square becomes a jousting ground for the Giostra del Saracino, a medieval tournament run between the city's four quarters that is a genuine civic institution rather than a tourist spectacle, with the whole town taking sides.
Arezzo is also the antiques capital of Italy: the Fiera Antiquaria fills the Piazza Grande and the surrounding streets on the first weekend of every month.
What you pack is set by a hot Tuscan summer, a sloping medieval centre and cold stone interiors.
The Frescoes, the Piazza Grande and Vasari
A capped-entry chapel, a tilting square, and the house of the man who invented art history.
San Francesco is a plain brick church on the Via Cavour, and the Cappella Bacci behind the high altar holds the Piero cycle. Half an hour is the slot and it is enough: the panels run around three walls in two tiers, and the famous ones are the Dream of Constantine, lit by a single angel, and the Battle of Heraclius. Book online.
The Piazza Grande is five minutes uphill and is the set piece. It slopes hard, which is unusual and gives it its character, and it is enclosed by Vasari's Loggia along the top side, the Palazzo della Fraternita dei Laici with its clock, and the apse of Santa Maria della Pieve, which presents its curved back to the square because the front faces the other way. The Pieve's facade on the Corso is a Romanesque stack of diminishing colonnades, each column carved differently, and it is free to go in.
The Duomo is at the top of the hill and holds a small Piero fresco of Mary Magdalene beside the north aisle, easy to walk past, plus good stained glass by Guillaume de Marcillat. Beside it the Fortezza Medicea has been restored and the park around it gives the view over the Valdichiana.
The Casa Vasari is a short walk and is worth it for the ceilings he painted himself, and the Museo Archeologico by the Roman amphitheatre holds the Aretine ware, the red glossy pottery Arezzo exported across the Roman world.
If you are here on the first weekend of a month, the Fiera Antiquaria takes over the whole upper town with several hundred dealers, and it is one of the better antiques markets in Europe.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Casentino, Cortona and the Piero Trail
Forest monasteries, a hill town, and three more Piero towns.
The Piero della Francesca trail is the obvious structure for a few days. Sansepolcro, forty minutes northeast, was his birthplace and holds the Resurrection, which Aldous Huxley called the greatest picture in the world, and the Madonna della Misericordia. Monterchi, between the two, has the Madonna del Parto, a pregnant Virgin in her own small museum, which is unlike anything else in Italian art.
North, the Casentino is a forested valley with two monasteries high in it: Camaldoli, a Benedictine hermitage in beech woods, and La Verna, where Francis of Assisi is said to have received the stigmata, built on a rock outcrop with the forest below. Both are working religious houses and both are quiet.
Cortona is forty minutes south, an Etruscan hill town above the Valdichiana with steep streets and a strong view, well known from Under the Tuscan Sun and busier for it. Lake Trasimeno is beyond it in Umbria.
Florence is an hour by train and Siena about an hour and a half by road, which makes Arezzo a cheaper and far quieter base for either than their own centres.
Getting around: the historic centre is built on a hill and the walk from the station up to the Duomo is a steady climb on paving, with the Piazza Grande sloping in the middle of it. Everything is walkable in twenty minutes. The station is on the main Florence to Rome line, which is the reason this works as a base, with frequent fast trains. A car is useful for the Casentino and the Piero towns, none of which has a good rail connection.
When to Go
April to June and September to October, with the Giostra in June and September.
Eastern Tuscany is continental Mediterranean: daytime highs from about 10C in January to 31C in July and August, cold frosty nights in winter and rain mostly between October and April.
Spring, April to June, is the best season, and the Giostra del Saracino runs in June, which is worth timing for if a genuine medieval tournament appeals.
July and August are hot and the city has less shade than its sloping streets suggest, though it is markedly quieter than Florence or Siena at the same time, which is the compensation.
September and October are excellent: the second Giostra falls in September, the vendange is on in the Valdichiana and the light is good on the stone.
Winter is cold, bright and quiet, with frost at night and the churches and museums as the point of a visit. The antiques fair runs every month regardless of season.
Is Arezzo Safe for Women Travelers
Arezzo is a prosperous provincial Tuscan city and very easy to travel alone.
The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in Italy. Its guidance concentrates on petty theft in crowded tourist areas and on the ZTL, the limited traffic zones in historic centres that catch drivers out with automatic fines months after the trip.
The pickpocketing that dominates Italian travel advice is concentrated in Florence, Rome and Venice, and Arezzo has little of it. What applies is the station, the Florence train, and the antiques fair crowds on the first weekend of the month, which are dense and slow-moving. A closed bag worn in front handles it. A theft needs an in-person report, the denuncia, for the document an insurer wants.
Day to day this is comfortable and quiet. The Corso Italia is pedestrianised and busy in the early evening for the passeggiata, eating alone is unremarkable, and the centre is small and lit. The area around the station is the least attractive part and is unremarkable. English is less widely spoken than in the Tuscan tourist towns, which is a consequence of how few visitors come.
Italy is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as an Italian resident. That means the same ticket, the co-payment Italians make, rather than nothing, and it does not cover repatriation, so travel insurance sits on top of it. Italian public hospitals are good and the emergency department, the pronto soccorso, treats anyone who arrives. Pharmacies, farmacie, are marked with a green cross, are staffed by pharmacists who can advise and dispense for minor problems, and post a rota for nights and Sundays on the door. Tap water is drinkable across the country, including from the public fountains that are common in Italian towns.
The physical cautions are modest. The centre is a hill and the streets are cobbled and polished, with the Piazza Grande sloping enough to be noticeable underfoot and slippery in rain. The churches and the Piero chapel are unheated stone and markedly colder than the street in winter. Tuscan summer heat is real and the upper town has limited shade.
The Arezzo Packing List
Shoes for a sloping cobbled hill
Walking shoes with grip, flat. The whole centre climbs, the Piazza Grande slopes hard, and the paving is polished stone that is slick in rain. Merino wool socks, which handle a hot climb without blistering.
Base layers, for a hot street and a cold chapel
You go from 31C on the Corso into the unheated stone of San Francesco for a half-hour fresco slot and back out, repeatedly across a day of churches. Merino at 160gsm handles exactly that: it breathes in real heat and insulates when you stop moving in a cold nave, without the bulk of a jumper you would then carry. Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron with no synthetic blend. A long sleeve merino wool base layer for women covers both ends and the church dress code at the same time.
A warm mid layer, November to April
A fleece mid layer. Eastern Tuscany frosts in winter and the churches hold the cold, and the Casentino monasteries are higher and colder again.
A light waterproof
A packable rain jacket for women from October to April. Rain here is seasonal rather than constant, and wet polished paving on a slope is the local hazard.
Sun protection in summer
A wide brim sun hat and sunscreen. The upper town and the Fortezza park have little shade and Tuscan summer heat is real.
A bag with room, if you come for the fair
The Fiera Antiquaria on the first weekend of the month is the reason many Italians come to Arezzo, and buying something is the point of it. Packing cubes keep a fragile purchase from rattling about in a case, and most dealers will arrange shipping for anything larger.
The small things
Cash in euros for the antiques fair, where it is expected, and for small places. An Italian two-pin adapter. A refillable bottle; tap water is drinkable. AND THE ONE BOOKING THAT MATTERS: a timed slot for the Piero della Francesca chapel, bought before you travel, because it is capped and it is the reason to come.
Essential Resources for Women in Arezzo
Emergency numbers: 112 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile, with operators who will find an English speaker. It is the single number across the whole European Union.
Non-emergency police: dial 112 for any emergency, which in Italy reaches police, ambulance and fire, and 113 for the Polizia di Stato. A theft needs an in-person report, the denuncia, to produce the document an insurer requires. English is less widely spoken here than in the Tuscan tourist towns.
Main hospital or clinic: the Ospedale San Donato in Arezzo has a full emergency department, the pronto soccorso. Dial 112 for an ambulance. A farmacia, marked with a green cross, posts the duty rota for nights and Sundays.
Official health authority: the Ministero della Salute, the Italian health ministry. Italy is in the EU, so a UK GHIC or EU EHIC gives you state-provided care on the same terms as an Italian resident, which means the same co-payment rather than nothing, and does not cover repatriation
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Rome. Rome, with a consulate general in Florence an hour away by train, which is the relevant one for Tuscany
Official tourism authority: ENIT, the Italian national tourist board. With the Arezzo tourist office for the Giostra del Saracino dates in June and September and the Fiera Antiquaria weekends, and separately with the San Francesco basilica for the Piero della Francesca chapel slots, which are timed, capped and sold in advance
The Piero chapel is capped: timed entry in small groups for conservation, roughly half an hour, and it sells out. Book before you travel; it is the reason to come.
The first weekend of the month: the antiques fair fills the upper town with several hundred dealers. Excellent, crowded, and worth knowing about in either direction.
The Piero trail: Sansepolcro and Monterchi hold his other major works and neither has a useful rail connection, so a car makes the trail possible.
US State Department travel advisory: the Italy advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/italy, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Solo women safety assessment: Arezzo is a prosperous provincial Tuscan city and very easy to travel alone. The Corso Italia is pedestrianised and busy in the early evening for the passeggiata, eating alone is unremarkable, and the centre is small and lit. The pickpocketing that dominates Italian travel advice is concentrated in Florence, Rome and Venice and there is little of it here; what applies is the station, the Florence train and the antiques fair crowds on the first weekend of each month, which are dense and slow-moving and therefore the one time a closed bag worn in front genuinely matters. A theft needs the in-person denuncia an insurer requires. The area around the station is the least attractive part and unremarkable. English is less widely spoken than in the Tuscan tourist towns, which is a direct consequence of how few visitors come, so some Italian helps more here than in Siena or Florence. The physical cautions are modest and underfoot: the centre is a hill, the paving is polished stone that is slick in rain, and the Piazza Grande slopes enough to be noticeable. Churches and the Piero chapel are unheated stone and markedly colder than the street in winter, which is the one thing worth packing for.
Reading On
For the country-level picture, start with the Italy travel guide for women. For why one thin wool layer covers a hot square and a cold chapel in the same hour, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
