Arezzo, Italy

When we knew we were traveling to Italy, we wanted to go to Tuscany to do wine tasting. Originally we had thought about Florence but instead we ended with Rome on our list so we began searching for a location in Tuscany that was located off the train between Venice and Rome. I came across a town called Arezzo in my searches and started exploring what it was all about. It's about 50 miles southeast of Florence and is named after Guido d'Arezzo, a medieval music theorist, who is the founder of the standard music stanza. It is only home to about 100,000 people and has a lot of history to it. A lot more than we were able to learn as we took a train on September 11 to Arrezo, arriving around lunch time in Arezzo for an afternoon of exploration.

But first finding somewhere to stay was THE priority. I began to search on my trusty TripAdvisor and found the #1 B&B in Arezzo was Chiusa dei Monaci, an old mill from the 1100's that has been turned into a wonderful B&B with the most friendly owner, Cinzia, who is like your mom away from home. She was absolutely the most friendly person and so welcoming. Her pride for her town is awe inspiring and she even worked for Prada. But her breakfast was out of this world. Homemade pastries, cheeses, meats and the BEST cappuccino in Italy! We loved our stay at the B&B, it was so welcoming and beautiful on a nice day. The only down side was getting to town. Cinzia dropped us one day, but you definitely need a taxi. It seems most people in Tuscany end up renting cars to get around, and that clearly makes sense!

Once our train arrived in Arezzo we were on our own figuring out our way which I probably should have done a better job preparing myself upon arrival because when we got off the train we went on the wrong side of the tracks if you know what I mean... We thought surely this CAN'T be Arezzo?! So we headed back to the train station and out the other side to be pleasantly surprised to find taxi's and more accurate civilization. We also happened to find a street market with different vendors and so we stopped for some lunch with some fresh sliced porchetta.

 
After lunch we continued exploring the town of Arezzo and made our way to the Piazza Grande, a medieval square in the center of the city, with different pieces of the square being built in different centuries starting in the 13th century. Between the 16th and 17th century, the Saracen Joust tournament was held regularly. It is an ancient game of chivalry in which jousting games were organized. Although the noble version no longer exists, they do historical reenactments each year in the Piazza. Pretty cool little fact!

After wandering we built up an appetite that we had been planning all day which required authentic Italian food that we could not get anywhere else. Cinzia recommended a lovely spot for dinner called Osteria da Luchino, in which she said that they make all homemade pastas and we were NOT disappointed! The pappardelle pasta with ragu was SO amazing and when I couldn't decide between that or the ravioli they allowed me to try both. And of course we ALWAYS had wine at every meal. The charcuterie we had in Italy was some of the best as well. I wish we could get the same quality here in the US!

After dinner we headed back to the B&B to rest up for our wine tour of Tuscany the next day. Arezzo is definitely a cute pit stop in Tuscany if you're looking for a quiet town off the beaten path and we could NOT recommend Chuisa dei Monaci any more, we LOVED the B&B and Cinzia!! She even sent a Christmas email to us! So adorable.

xoxo,
Amanda