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Cortona
(of Under the Tuscan Sun fame) is about a 25-30 minute drive away, and
it really is a lovely town. Parking is very limited there and it fills
up fast (especially on Saturday market day), so try to arrive and park
by 10:00 am.
The city of Arezzo is about a 30 minute drive away.
It is the “city of gold”, so called because of the gold jewelry
manufacturing there. Arezzo is also famous for Piero della Francesca’s
Legend of the True Cross fresco cycle in the basilica of San Francesco,
and as the setting for the first half of Roberto Begnini’s movie Life
is Beautiful. The lovely Café Costanza, which featured in the film, is
just across the piazza from the church of San Francesco.
The
famous Arezzo monthly antiques fair (the biggest in Italy) is the first
Sunday of every month and the Saturday before that Sunday (essentially
the first weekend of the month). It offers real antiques, including
some beautiful pieces of furniture, as well as vintage jewelry mixed in
with lots of junk and knick-knacks. We like to do the antiques fair in
the morning and then have a long Sunday lunch at La Lancia d’Oro in the
Piazza Grande before driving home. Saturdays are also Arezzo’s market
day, so Saturdays in the city are more crowded than Sundays. Even
without the monthly antique fair, Arezzo has many antique stores,
jewelry shops, nice clothing stores, and churches and museums worth
exploring.
The province of Arezzo has a tourism website (for the
English version, click on the British flag in the upper right hand
corner of the homepage) that lists events and festivals throughout the
province, as well as museums and other sites and sights: http://www.apt.arezzo.it/ In
Arezzo province, in our Chiana valley, Civitella in Val di Chiana,
Foiano della Chiana, and Castiglion Fiorentino are also worth a visit,
as is the very tiny village of Gargonza. If you happen to be here in
February before Lent begins, Foiano della Chiana has one of the oldest
Carnevales in Italy.
In neighboring Siena province (just to
the west), the city of Siena itself is maybe a 30 minute drive, with
another 15 minutes needed to figure out how to approach the city and
find a place to park. Follow the signs for “Siena ovest” and then
towards the “centro”; park in one of the large lots outside the walls.
The province of Siena’s tourism website (for English, click the British
flag in the upper right hand corner of the homepage) is: http://www.terresiena.it/
You can find several brochures for museums and interesting walks in
Siena in our house basket. Despite the crowds of tourists and college
students at all times of the year, I love Siena, and its colors and
light and beautiful buildings. Spend some time admiring the piazza,
walk up and down the steep streets, see the museums, relax over lunch
in one of Siena’s great restaurants, then find your way back to your
car.
Buonconvento, San Quirico d’Orcia, the lovely town of
Pienza, Monte Oliveto Maggiore (a Benedictine monastery with famous
frescoes, and the wonderful restaurant Locanda dell’Amoroso nearby),
Castelnuovo Berardenga (famous for its wines and for what Wine
Spectator has named one of the best seafood restaurants in Italy),
Montalcino, Montepulciano, the Abbey of Sant’Antimo, Bagno Vignoni,
Cetona, San Casciano dei Bagni, Chiusi (with its Etruscan tombs), and
Sarteano are all charming towns with interesting sights and museums.
These are easy day trips (some of the smaller towns you can cover two
or even three by lunchtime if you start early). Leave an entire day and
evening for Montalcino: Brunello shopping and a wonderful,
unforgettable dinner at Poggio Antico or Castello Banfi. Drive home
carefully.
Several mineral springs and spas are in the area –
some impressively fancy, some less so. You can get a day pass and
treatments at most, even if you are not staying the night.
The region of Umbria is to the east. Assisi and Perugia can each be a day trip.
About
roads and driving: looking on a good map, you will see that there are
multiple roads – some large, some small – to get to most towns. This
explains why you may see two signs pointing in opposite directions for
the same place name. Other than navigating the outskirts and parking
lots of Florence, Perugia, Siena, and Arezzo – and Cortona (if you get
there after 10:00 am) – the driving around here is not too scary. If
you make a wrong turn, you can usually reconnect to the right road
within a short distance. Relax – you’re on vacation.
For drives
into Florence (a little over an hour if there is not much traffic on
the autostrada), we suggest taking the Firenze Certosa exit and
following the signs toward the centro all the way to Porta Romana,
where there is a parking lot just inside the gates. In the summer that
lot fills up fast with tourists, so try to get to town by 9:30 am or
so. There are more expensive lots closer to the river and near the
train station.
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