Arezzo: a perfect 3-days long weekend every art lover should experience

Is it possible to combine your passion for travel with the aesthetic experience of admiring art? Absolutely yes, the most important thing is to choose the right destination! Today we would like to join you on a discovery experience in Arezzo, for sharing together a complete immersion in its genuine art.

Arezzo, an emerging destination for artistic and cultural tourism in Tuscany, is the perfect town to spend a three-days long weekend in a truly human-scale urban setting.

Be inspired by the beauty of its architecture and its prestigious human heritage, made of the life stories of artists and artisans, timeless masterpieces and unique fragments of the past - not just from the artistic perspective - of this magical City of Arts.

If you love art in all its forms and want to visit Arezzo, the ideal solution is a three-days long weekend in the city, from Friday morning to Sunday evening.

Arezzo's historic centre is one of the most beautiful and rich in Tuscany, offering travelers a long list of attractions to discover with the convenience of a slow-paced experience, fully enjoying each location and lingering over the delicious regional food.

Friday, the day of arrival, is the perfect time to familiarize with the town and its streets, alleys and piazzas. The best way to do this is to indulge in the pleasure of free discovery, perhaps exploring the picturesque Vie delle Botteghe (Streets of Workshops).

On Saturday and Sunday the visit becomes more intense and structured, with an artistic and cultural itinerary that explores Arezzo's most iconic sites, discovering internationally renowned art masterpieces and the many museums in the town.

From Piazza Grande to Casa Vasari, from Via Cavour to Piazza Duomo, from the Roman Amphitheater to the Basilica San Francesco, the magic of Arezzo awaits you for three days of pure sensory excitement by arts, tradition and passion.

It's Friday morning, and that means it's finally time to set off for Arezzo! The City of Arts is an easily accessible destination for tourists from around the world, thanks to excellent road and railway connections to the most relevant Italian cities (A1, SS679, SS715 and SS69) and the most important airports not so far from the town (Florence, Pisa and Bologna).

The best way to explore Arezzo? On foot, obviously! The city is built on a truly human scale, allowing travelers to visit the most beautiful attractions freely and without rushing.

There's no shortage of alternatives: at the train station (Piazza Repubblica) and the bus terminal (Viale Piero della Francesca) you can take advantage of the bike-sharing service or take a shuttle bus, a convenient option for those staying outside the historic centre.

After dropping off your bags, regardless of where is your accomodation, it's time for your first long stroll around the city. It's the perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in the local spirit and become familiar with its urban landscape, already daydreaming about the artistic wonders of Arezzo you've glimpsed online - and you can't wait to admire live!

Exploring the historic centre from the morning, true art lovers cannot help but feel captivated by the artistic mastery and the sense of refinement and uniqueness that only Arezzo's artisan workshops can convey.

These historic, yet paradoxically timeless places, are the town's authentic soul. Here you’ll enjoy a profound cultural experience, visiting the workshops, observing the artisans at work, talking to them and witnessing the quality of the crafted products that have made Arezzo famous worldwide.

After a typical lunch based on pici all'aglione at one of the classic restaurants in Arezzo's centre - some even feature frescoed walls! - the cultural tour around the workshops continues throughout the afternoon and evening. We recommend exploring the city freely, but don't forget the main streets dedicated to art and craftsmanship, that are Corso Italia, Via Cavour, Via Cesalpino and Via Bicchieraia.

Antique art restoration workshops, drawing, painting and contemporary art studios, antique galleries, workshops of goldsmiths and carpentry masters, each stop is a little piece of an evocative journey through the city's history and traditions. Friday afternoon and evening will fly by!

Saturday morning is dedicated to discovering Arezzo's masterpieces of sacred art, housed within some of the most important churches in the town's historic centre. The first stop is the Basilica of San Francesco, located in the namesake square along Via Cavour.

Here you can admire extraordinary and eye-catching works of art, including frescoes, sculptures and wooden crucifixes, created by tuscan masters starting from the 1300’s - with the exception of a splendid stained-glass window by french Guillaume de Marcillat.

But the main attraction is undoubtedly the fresco cycle Stories or Legend of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca, created in the mid-1400’s to decorate the main chapel. Just like watching scenes from a film, for anyone traveling to Arezzo it's an absolute must to stop and admire these prestigious frescoes and be inspired by the charm of one of the peaks of renaissance art.

The artistic morning in Arezzo continues a few meters further along Corso Italia, with a visit to the majestic Church of Santa Maria della Pieve, overlooking iconic Piazza Grande from the apse side. The building is among the best in the town, famous for its loggia-lined facade and romanesque aesthetic, but its true magic lies within. In an extremely solemn setting, amidst columns and arched naves, in the presbytery visitors have the privilege of admiring Lorenzetti's Polyptych, a masterful 1300’s painting.

Before lunch, let's stroll around Piazza Grande and prepare for the next visit to the Vasari loggias, specifically to the museum inside Palazzo Fraternita dei Laici. Here it’s time to set off on a journey through time from the renaissance to the contemporary era, exploring halls filled with collections of paintings and fine furniture and a historic watchmaking studio.

Saturday afternoon is the perfect time to explore a different side of the city, discovering two truly unmissable museum attractions. The next stop is San Lorentino, it's just a ten-minute walk from Piazza Grande retracing in reverse Corso Italia and Via Cavour.

Here, inside the prestigious Palazzo Bruni Ciocchi, art lovers will find a truly beloved place worth exploring for hours. Of course we’re speaking of the Museum of Medieval and Modern Art of Arezzo, an exhibition spanning twenty halls on three floors where you can passionately relive the town's past, among collections of paintings, sculptures, coins and ceramics that tell about the evolution of local art over the centuries.

For those still hungry for art and beauty, continuing along nearby Via XX Settembre promises a unique artistic experience by visiting the most fascinating house-museum in Arezzo. Which one? Casa Vasari!

Giorgio Vasari's spectacular historic residence offers art-loving travelers the opportunity to discover the master's private life and sources of inspiration, wandering through evocative chambers filled with luxuriously decorated ceilings and impressive frescoed walls. Don't miss also the beautiful internal garden, a green space where you can relax among hedged alleys and picturesque fountains.

Saturday evening, after taking in so much art, is the perfect chance to explore the centre at your own leisure allowing yourself to be led by the city's atmosphere. Before a typically tuscan dinner, you could indulge in some shopping: did you know that in Arezzo there are fashion shops furnished and decorated just like museums?

If you're spending your three-days long weekend in Arezzo at the beginning of the month, then on Sunday morning you absolutely must visit the stands of the iconic Antiques Fair, a fantastic chance to purchase vintage or artisan items that can't be found anywhere else.

But Sunday is also a day for museums and culture, and in this field Arezzo is second to none. Our first stop is the Gaio Cilnio Mecenate Archaeological Museum, one of the most important collections of roman and etruscan art and archaeological finds in Tuscany, next to the beautiful Roman Amphitheater.

In the second half of the morning, the next attraction is the Diocesan Museum of Arezzo, at easy reach by shuttle bus or on foot in just twenty minutes. We're in Piazza Duomo, near from the town's cathedral and historic institutional buildings.

The museum inside Palazzo Vescovile offers visitors a five-halls tour through frescoes, paintings and sacred art iconography primarily dating to the 1500's, 1600's and 1700's, with a large space dedicated entirely to Vasari. Don’t miss also the Popes Chamber, a luxurious and richly furnished room designed to host the Holy Father on his visit to Arezzo.

For lovers of literature and poetry a must-see in Arezzo is Casa Petrarca, an ideal stop before lunch. Among ancient manuscripts, the extensive thematic library about the father of the Italian language and literature and collections of renaissance paintings and ancient coins, here the emotion of travel meets the delicacy of writing, a cultural heritage of which the citizens of Arezzo feel very proud!

On Sunday afternoon the museum tour in Arezzo continues, exploring alleys and small squares that have made cinematic history - not everyone knows, but Arezzo was chosen by Roberto Benigni as the setting for Life is Beautiful - and populated by artists always ready to create beautiful personalized portraits.

Strolling around by charm and lightheartedness let’s head to the Museum of Media and Communication, a whole space dedicated to tools and technologies that accompanied humans in their desire to communicate and share with everyone, remotely too.

The museum houses over two thousand pieces including early and modern cinema equipment, specific devices for sound reproduction, telegraphy, writing and calculation, historic versions of telephones, radios, televisions and a collection of prototypes of modern computers and smartphones.

But it's time to take another leap into the past, this time through the fascinating lens of author antiques. The next stop before sunset is the Ivan Bruschi House and Antiques Museum, located at the Palazzo del Capitano del Popolo.

A true journey discovering the personal collections of one of the greatest antique dealers of the 20th century and founder of the Fair, with an exhibition through sixteen halls on three floors brimming with every conceivable artistic expression. Stone engravings, drawings and paintings, sculptures, jewelry, coins, medals and seals, ceramics and even scientific instruments and fossils: here everything becomes object of display, with its own, incredible story to tell!

Sunday evening inevitably marks the end of this long weekend in Arezzo. If you haven't yet, before going to dinner, you can take your opportunity to visit the Fair's stands one last time and perhaps find the perfect souvenir from the City of Arts.

Spending three days in Arezzo we understood why this town is truly a City of Arts, an unmissable destination for all art lovers and culture enthusiasts.

Arezzo is a gem that has preserved for centuries some of Tuscany's (and more) great masterpieces, a city-symbol of a journey spanning from the etruscan and roman eras to the renaissance, while always embracing the new challenges of local craftsmanship and alternative forms of contemporary art with interest and passion.

Unlike other Italian art cities, Arezzo is still quite far from the circuits of mass tourism, making it a much more accessible and enjoyable destination for a holiday of discovery and pleasure. Why not, perhaps a long weekend to savor, a feast for the eyes and a delicacy for the taste!

Would you like to experience the magic of the City of Arts? Here's a recap of the stops we recommend for a three-days long weekend in Arezzo, dedicated to art and culture enthusiasts and anyone wishing to visit a fascinating and tourist-friendly city.

Day 1 – Friday

Morning: arrival in the town and first stroll in the historic centre.

Afternoon and evening: exploring Streets of Workshops (Corso Italia, Via Cavour, Via Cesalpino, and Via Bicchieraia) to discover Arezzo's fine craftsmanship.

Day 2 – Saturday

Morning: Basilica of San Francesco and the fresco cycle Stories or Legend of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca; Church of Santa Maria della Pieve and Lorenzetti’s Polyptych; Piazza Grande and the museum inside Palazzo Fraternita dei Laici.

Afternoon: Museum of Medieval and Modern Art of Arezzo at Palazzo Bruni Ciocchi; House Museum of Giorgio Vasari with a visit to the internal garden.

Evening: free time in the centre of Arezzo and shopping by charming fashion shops that resemble small museums.

Day 3 – Sunday

Morning: tour by the stands of the Arezzo Antiques Fair; Gaio Cilnio Mecenate Archaeological Museum and Roman Amphitheater; Diocesan Museum in Piazza Duomo; House Museum of Francesco Petrarca.

Afternoon: walk among the locations featured in Benigni's Life is Beautiful; Museum of Media and Communication; Ivan Bruschi House and Antiques Museum.

Evening: evening tour of the Fair and final stroll through the historic centre followed by a traditional dinner.