A Perfect Day in Arezzo

September 17, 2026

Piazza Grande and Catherina piccola con cappello grande

Arezzo should be named the Goldilocks city of Italy (a new award I have conjured up) because when it comes to finding a city that you can explore in a single day, Arezzo takes the cake - not too small, and not too big. Better yet, you can fit in an afternoon rest and not be woken by a trio of bears!

Piazza di l'Agostino

And like all great Italian towns, Arezzo is full of unknown churches with surprising art treasures, square towers, and narrow streets that are either asleep during the day, only to come alive at night with overflowing restaurants, or are known for their specialized shops, whether it be high fashion, artistic creations or underwear. We found the centro storico to be absolutely charming, especially as it was almost empty of tourists like us! Of course, Catherine had just celebrated the fact that there are no tourist groups in Arezzo, when one came around the corner to block the view I was trying to capture with my phone. From piazzas to parks, one couldn’t help but feel the town was ours for the day. Add to that a backdrop of small scudding clouds to frame towers by day and a crescent moon to add a touch of magic to the nighttime sky.

The tower of the Palazzo dei Priori

One of the best aspects of Arezzo - few tourists to ruin my photos

La luna sopra la piazza

After more than 40 years of marriage you're bound to look alike

I actually lost track of the number of churches we wandered into, but I think it must have been only four, as two of the churches we only saw from the outside. It being the first day of churches I had a tendency to take pictures indiscriminately - wow, another 15th century fresco! In the Duomo, I happened upon a Piero della Francesca fresco of Mary Magdalene that Catherine had waltzed past unaware. Just a few steps away, a 13th-century Madonna and Child in painted wood, she looking rather challenging and no-nonsense, even fierce; the child blessing us all. In the Chiesa di San Domenico, as the church bells rang, we gazed up at a crucifix hanging over the altar that Cimabue had painted in 1267. In the Pieve di Santa Maria, an altarpiece painted by Lorenzetti ca 1320, St Dominic and St Francis frescoed on a column by Andrea di Nerio in 1360 and a weird but undeniably striking reliquary bust of San Donato (martyred in 363 in Arezzo and the city’s patron saint) worked by local goldsmiths in 1346. Forty years ago I would have waltzed past all the art as mere religious art. What a difference being married to a cultured Anglican priest makes! Now I look for different treatments of biblical stories, different artistic imaginations, earmarks of different artistic movements, and unique decorative features. After over forty years I can almost spend as much time in a historic church as my dear wife!

Chiesa di San Domenico

Ciambue's Crucifix

Being a saint could give you quite the headache

Piero della Francesca's Mary Magdalene

A bust of Giorgio Vasari, the source of so much of what we know about

Italy's 14th and 15th century painters, and one-time resident of Arezzo

After a much needed jetlag-induced afternoon rest ( the length of which may make tonight a nuit blanche) we had a dinner of pizza and salad in the park watching the light fade over the Apennines to the northeast of the city. We then wandered through the piazzas and narrow streets following the crescent moon perched over our neighbourhood to the west. In the Piazza Grande under Vasari’s Loggia we watched the moon over the candlelit tables in the medieval-Renaissance square as a violinist played (while puffing a cigarette!) Con Te Partiro (Time to Say Goodbye, famously sung by Andrea Boccelli - not to mention some Grace Church choir members at a Valentine’s Day party). That song in that square is magic, and Italy. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.