Cortona and Arezzo Full-Day Small-Group Tour from Rome

Piazza Grande is the heart of Arezzo and is one of the most beautiful piazzas in Tuscany, thanks to the buildings coming from different periods in history that overlook the piazza like a stage setting. Known for its odd form because of it being built on a downhill slope, during the Middle Ages, the piazza was the location for the market, and during the Renaissance it became the center of the city’s civic life. Every first weekend of the month, on Saturday and Sunday, the Piazza also hosts the major Antiques Fair, one of the most important of its kind in Italy, established in 1968.

The Basilica of San Francesco is a late Medieval church in Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy, dedicated to St Francis of Assisi. It is especially renowned for housing in the chancel the fresco cycle Legends of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca.

Frances Mayes lived villa Bramasole and, in 1996, she published the book "Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy". The book is a memoir of Mayes buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned villa in rural Cortona in Tuscany. The villa Bramasole built in 1504 was used as the location for the 2003 film Under the Tuscan Sun.

Known as Le Celle, this Franciscan hermitage is just five kilometres from Cortona at the feet of Mount Sant’Egidio. It was erected between 1211 and1221, and it briefly housed St Francis of Assisi himself in his lifetime.

Piazza della Repubblica is the heart of Cortona. It has been the center of the city since Roman times when the Forum was located here. The focal point of the Piazza is the Palazzo del Capitano that was built in the 1200s as the seat for the "captain" (the poltical ruler), the striking bell tower was added in the 15th century. It served as cardinal's residence for a time before becoming the town hall.

Basilica of Santa Margherita is a Neo-gothic style, Roman Catholic church, located just outside the Tuscan town of Cortona, Italy, at the intersection of Via delle Santucce and Via Sant Margherita, on a hill just below the Fortezza Medicea, and dedicated to a native saint of town (Margaret of Cortona)