Best Towns near Arezzo, Tuscany
Arezzo is just an hour’s train ride from Florence, strategically sited at a hilltop crossroads of four valleys: the Val Tiberina, Casentino, Valdarno and Valdichiana. One of the wealthiest cities in Tuscany due to its history in gold-smithery, Arezzo is surrounded by beautiful hill-towns; here are some of our favourites:
Anghiari
A medieval walled town, Anghiari is known for its artisans. Famous for their work, as well as the bright checkered tablecloths that denote a place to stop and sample the locale cuisine, it is a place to fill the day with pleasurable “slow living”.
Famous for a battle fought here in 1440 when the Florentines conquered the area from the Milanese, the town has a museum about the battle itself and about Leonardo da Vinci's famous lost Fresco of the battle. It's the Museo della Battaglia di Anghiari, set inside the Palazzo del Marzocco.
Cortona
In Tuscany’s Valdichiana and famed for its ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ association, this town overlooks Lake Trasimeno. Encircled with stone walls dating to Etruscan & Roman times, this gracious town is full of shops, good restaurants and a good Etruscan museum.
Visit the Diocesan Museum to see a beautiful panel painting by Beato Angelico, and the Etruscan Museum to see many of the artefacts found in the nearby Archeological Park.
Castelonchio, a villa for 6 with private pool, is a great place to stay if you want to visit Cortona.
Loro Ciuffenna
Named for its plentiful laurel shrubs and the Ciuffenna river that powered its many flour mills–the earliest built in 1100 – Loro Ciuffenna finds a harmonious blend of its well-preserved historic centre and the beauty the surrounding wind-sculpted landscapes.
It is reached via a fabulous road, called the road of Seven Bridges, that weaves its way along the side of the mountains of Pratomagno, with beautiful views of the valley below. When you're there it's worth visiting the water mill, one of the oldest working water mills in Tuscany, still used today to grind chestnuts into flour.
Close to the village there is also a beautiful Romanesque church, San Pietro in Gropina. A church has been documented on this site since 774, and there are archeological traces below the current building dating back to the 5th-6th century.
A little further north are some interesting and peculiar rock formations called "Le Balze" - curiously striated rock towers made by the erosion of sedimentary rocks laid down during the Pliocene and Pleistocene.
If you'd like to explore this area, the villas at Borgo Rinnovato, or the little villa for four called Treggiaia are great places to stay.
Lucignano
Lucignano‘s elliptical rings leave no doubt as to its medieval origins. For at a time when its strategic position between Siena and Arezzo was critical and fought over, being able to see invaders from the any direction atop a hill was a decided advantage. Today it's a wonderful place to visit, with an old Medici castle close by, and a sanctuary (Madonna della Querce) said to have been designed by Giorgio Vasari.
Sansepolcro
The birthplace of Piero della Francesca, this lovely city of local stone in the upper Tiber valley honors their native son in both the fine Civic Museum and Romanesque cathedral. Lively but with an understated elegance, this is a charming place to linger.
Castiglion Fiorentino
Above the Val di Chiana and looking onto cattle ranches and quiet farmlands, the walled medieval Castiglion Fiorentino loves to party, be it in the Medieval Festival in May, the Palio dei Rioni horse race in June or the Days of Baccus Wine Festival in October.
Poppi
In Poppi the charming hexagonal church Oratorio della Madonna contrasts with the imposing Castello overlooking the town and once the battleground where the Ghibellines of Arezzo met the Guelphs of Florence, Dante Alighieri among them.
Sanctuary of La Verna
Tucked into the side of Mount Penna in the beautiful Casentino Forest, the Sanctuary was the spiritual retreat of St. Francis and where on his last visit in 1224 he received the stigmata. Visitors come for its striking natural beauty and for the peace.