Arezzo is a city that rewards those who arrive without excessive expectations and leave with a genuine affection for a place that does not chase its own fame. Unlike the more immediately iconic cities of Tuscany, Arezzo presents its treasures in a lower key: the greatest fresco cycle of the fifteenth century is housed in a modest church that can be walked past without a second glance; the city’s most celebrated piazza is on a slope and paved with irregular stones; and the largest antique fair in Italy takes place on a weekend each month in the open air, as it has for over 50 years. From Villa Talciona, Arezzo is approximately 80 kilometres to the south-east, about one hour by car.
Piero della Francesca: The Legend of the True Cross
The single greatest reason to visit Arezzo is the fresco cycle by Piero della Francesca in the Cappella Maggiore of the Basilica of San Francesco, painted between approximately 1452 and 1466. “The Legend of the True Cross” depicts the story of the wood that became the Cross of Christ, from its origins as a branch of the Tree of Knowledge to its recovery by the Emperor Heraclius, across ten large scenes painted in Piero’s uniquely serene and geometrically ordered style.
Piero della Francesca was one of the most intellectually sophisticated painters of the Renaissance: a mathematician as well as an artist, he produced a treatise on perspective that was read by Leonardo da Vinci. His frescoes in Arezzo reflect this mathematical rigour in their composition, but what moves visitors most powerfully is the quality of light in the paintings: a silvery, even, somehow timeless illumination that makes the figures appear to inhabit a world beyond the normal passage of time. The “Dream of Constantine” in particular, a night scene in which an angel descends to a sleeping emperor attended by guards, is one of the most extraordinary paintings in Italy.
Visits to the chapel require advance booking (numbers are strictly limited to protect the frescoes) and are timed to 30-minute slots. Book online before you arrive.
Piazza Grande: Arezzo’s Sloping Masterpiece
The Piazza Grande is the heart of Arezzo’s civic life and one of the most architecturally interesting squares in Tuscany. Unlike the flat, geometrically regular piazzas of Siena and Florence, Arezzo’s main square slopes perceptibly from one end to the other and is paved with an irregular mix of brick and stone that gives it a worn, organic quality. The buildings surrounding it span several centuries: Giorgio Vasari’s elegant loggia (1573) faces the Romanesque apse of the Pieve di Santa Maria, and the medieval palazzi on the upper side of the square complete an ensemble that is more richly varied than almost any other square in Italy.
The piazza is also the setting for the Giostra del Saracino, Arezzo’s medieval joust festival held twice yearly (in June and September), in which the four historic quarters of the city compete in a tournament on horseback against a mechanical figure representing a Saracen warrior. The joust is preceded by days of costumed processions and neighbourhood celebrations that transform the city’s atmosphere entirely. If your dates at Villa Talciona coincide with the Giostra, the 80-kilometre drive to Arezzo is exceptionally worthwhile.
Giorgio Vasari’s House
Giorgio Vasari, the sixteenth-century artist, architect, and art historian whose “Lives of the Artists” remains the foundational text of Italian art history, was born in Arezzo and lived here for much of his life. His house on the Via XX Settembre is preserved as a museum and decorated with frescoes he designed himself, an exercise in humanist self-promotion that is both historically fascinating and visually entertaining. The rooms are small but richly painted, and the museum gives an intimate sense of the life of a highly cultivated Renaissance artist-intellectual.
Vasari is also responsible for the loggia in Piazza Grande and for the Vasari Corridor in Florence (the elevated passageway connecting the Uffizi to the Palazzo Pitti), which means his legacy is present throughout much of Tuscany. Seeing his house in Arezzo gives that wider legacy a personal context.
The Monthly Antique Fair
On the first weekend of every month (Saturday and Sunday), Arezzo hosts the Fiera Antiquaria di Arezzo, one of the largest antique markets in Italy, with over 500 dealers filling the Piazza Grande and the surrounding streets with furniture, art, ceramics, jewellery, vintage clothing, books, and an enormous range of collectibles. The market has been running since 1968 and has a reputation throughout Italy and beyond for the quality and variety of its offerings.
A visit on an antique fair weekend requires earlier planning: accommodation in Arezzo is fully booked months in advance, but from Villa Talciona the day trip is entirely feasible. Arrive when the market opens (usually around 8 in the morning) for the best selection and the most relaxed atmosphere before the crowds build. The combination of the Piazza Grande as a setting, the frescoes by Piero della Francesca a few streets away, and 500 dealers with objects from across Italian history makes a fair-weekend visit to Arezzo one of the most distinctive days out in Tuscany.
Gold Jewellery and Shopping
Arezzo has been one of the centres of Italian gold jewellery production for decades: the city produces a significant proportion of Italy’s gold jewellery output and has a concentration of gold shops (oreficerie) that is unusual even by Italian standards. The quality ranges from industrial production to genuine artisan jewellery, and for visitors interested in purchasing gold, Arezzo’s shops offer a far wider selection than anywhere else in Tuscany.
The city’s food shops reflect the Aretine culinary tradition, which leans towards hearty meat-based dishes, excellent salumi from the Casentino valley to the north, and a range of local cheeses. The city has a lively covered market (Mercato Coperto) near the station that is excellent for food shopping and a good indication of what locals actually eat.
Combining Arezzo with Cortona
Arezzo and Cortona are about 30 kilometres apart, and the road between them is straightforward. For guests at Villa Talciona planning a trip to the south-eastern corner of Tuscany, combining Arezzo and Cortona in a single day is feasible though demanding. A more relaxed approach is to dedicate a full day to each, with Arezzo prioritised for Piero della Francesca and the antique market, and Cortona for its hilltop atmosphere and views over Lake Trasimeno. See more about Cortona and other destinations around the villa.
Arezzo is the kind of city that grows on you with each visit. Its combination of world-class Renaissance art, a genuinely functioning antique economy, and a civic life that is not primarily organised around tourism gives it a character that is increasingly rare in Tuscany’s most visited region. Book your stay at Villa Talciona and experience Arezzo alongside all the other extraordinary destinations within reach of the Chianti hills.
