In this post in the series Snapshots from a Tourist in Italy, my Dad heads to Arezzo.

AREZZO

Arezzo is capital of the province of the same name, about 80 km southeast of Florence. According to Wikipedia, the population is around 100,000.

Importantly for us, the train station is well served by inter city and regional trains on the main line between Rome and Florence. We elected to base ourselves in Arezzo for our guided Tuscan sightseeing with Very Tuscany. For that reason, however, we did not spend as much time, exploring Arezzo itself, as we may have liked.

In our photo record, many photos were taken on Saturday morning, before a lot of people were out and about.

Several buildings stand out, as they can be seen from several different vantage points. In particular, the Duomo has a high vantage point (no real surprise there) but also the Palazzo Comunale and Palazzo Caimani have prominent towers.

The rather unusual façade of the Chiesa S. Francesca catches the eye, as does the beauty of Piazza Grande, defined on one side by the Palazzetto della Fraternità dei Laici and the Chiesa di S. Maria della Pieve.

The view across the countryside, from the parkland at the rear of the Duomo, shows rolling hills, olive groves and the expanding city.

Most of all, we enjoyed watching the locals going about their business and preparing for their day.

Arezzo does not feature on most tour operators’ two week “The Magic of Italy” tours.

Typically, those tours go to Assisi and Florence, but miss out on Orvieto, Cortona and Arezzo. This does not mean Arezzo is off the tourist trail altogether, but it does not appear to suffer from the same crowding or blatantly ‘touristy’ outlets.

There are further photos of Arezzo on Flickr.