Arezzo

Yesterday we took a quick trip to Arezzo. For some reason Seth has been fascinated by this Chianti town 80km outside Florence, maybe because he kept getting it confused with Assisi, haha. Or because of the famous 11th-century music theorist, Guido d'Arezzo. I mostly knew it for its popular, monthly antiques fair, and for being the setting of Roberto Benigni's La vita è bella. Either way, we could get their really fast via the train station near our apartment (Campo di Marte), which we love, so we packed a picnic lunch and zipped down there.

Arezzo, not a huge tourist destination, was a relief from huge swarms of tourists, though it had well beyond its fare share of Germans (the Japanese were absent, tending to avoid these less grand cities). Like most towns, I suppose, it has a modern exterior with all the typical shops and grocery stores, but still maintains a lively struscio ('main drag'), and a lovely, old core.

The bell tower of Santa Maria della Pieve rising through the middle of the narrow street
The very sloping Piazza Grande
There were little signs scattered around the city center illustrating where scenes from La vita è bella were shot. Along with the Piazza Grande, do you recognize this house from the movie? Seth is pretending to catch the key that kept falling for Guido, but we later figured out he is standing in front of the wrong door. The correct door is actually the one that the man in the foreground is unlocking ... with a massive set of keys!

The Vasari Loggia bordering the piazza

A park where we had lunch, outside the Medici Fortress

After a good walk through town and a peek inside a couple churches, it was still early enough to catch a bus to nearby Cortona (an even smaller town just a few kilometers away, the setting for another book and film, Under the Tuscan Sun), but we were not feeling the motivation and called it an early day. Maybe next time!