Central Tuscany (Paperback)

Updated 2020 / 2021 Edition

This is the most comprehensive Arezzo guidebook in English. It invites you to the hill town of Arezzo to view its sites and experience it’s culture. My guidebooks are for the repeat visitor, people who want to focus on enjoying Italian culture more than “collecting” as many sites as possible. With my books you:

• learn about culture and festivals,
• find a place to stay with information on an agriturismo, hotel, and B&B,
• eat at good restaurants and pizzerias,
• participate in the evening passeggiata and local Saturday market,
• decode religious art,
• use GPS coordinates to navigate,
• review mobile accessibility of sites, and
• cook with authentic recipes, many from my Italian family.

1. Location. Arezzo is a short 45 minute train ride to Florence; 30 minutes by car from Cortona; 60 from Pienza and the Val d'Orcia; and 90 from the wine region of Chianti. Nearby is Ponte Buriano, the bridge in the background of the Mona Lisa.


2. Less Expensive. With Florence only 45 minutes away you can stay in Arezzo for less. Moderately priced hotels and agriturismi abound in the area.


3. Festivals. Arezzo hosts a monthly Antique Fair, considered by many the most important in Italy with over 200 dealers winding all around the old city center. Twice a year the four neighborhoods compete in the Joust of the Saracino, complete with full Medieval regalia. Almost every weekend brings in a special festival.


4. Markets. Saturday mornings are for the large open air market selling everything from food to shoes to toys to kitchenware. There are often specialty markets on the weekend.

Arezzo Sites Covered in the Book

The book helps you visit ten churches and nine museums and several other parks and squares.

• Not every museum is about art. The telecommunications museum, Museo dei Mezzi di Communicazione, is bound to make you feel old.


• The best museum in Arezzo, Museo Casa Ivan Bruschi, holds an outstanding collection of antiques from all over the world.


• Additional chapters cover landmarks including the Mona Lisa Bridge, fortezza, and Piazza Grande.


• Finally seven more chapters focus on culture including festivals, markets, passeggiata, the legend of San Donato, and food.

Praise from Readers

• I was delighted to find your book on the area on Amazon before our visit earlier this month.


• We went to Arezzo a few years ago, but this time, armed with guidebook we visited again. I wanted to let you know how helpful the book was. I had not noticed the bas-reliefs on the barrel vault of the main door of Pieve Santa Maria or visited the Museo Ivan Bruschi before, let alone the Telecommunications Museum which, like you, we stumbled on unexpectedly.


• I just finished your book and wanted to tell you I enjoyed it very much. I am planning to go to the Tuscany area next June for a wedding and it gave me a lot of usual information. Because of your book I plan on setting up shop in Arezzo for a few days.


• I have your guide books which have been very useful.

Contact: scott.grabinger@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/scott.grabinger
Photo Galleries: www.stgimages.com

Book descriptions: www.stgbooks.com

NOTE: The print version is in black and white. You can get a color copy by emailing Scott Grabinger a copy of your receipt and he will send you a pdf. Information is on the back of the title page.

My books feature less visited sites in southern Tuscany, recount my adventures and misadventures, and share authentic family recipes.

Why are my guidebooks unique?

Experience. My family and I have been traveling around Italy since 1992 learning the towns, sites, foods, language, and culture.

Slow travel. I focus on small towns and culture for the repeat visitor to Tuscany—places that most guidebooks cover in 30 words or less. To me, if you are returning to Tuscany you want to travel slower to engage more deeply in the culture rather than “collect” as many sites as possible.

Family makes the difference. My Italian cousins give me a unique perspective. They show me the real “Inside Tuscany,” its hidden tiny hill towns, incredible panoramas, and restaurants and pizzerias known only to locals. I have visited sagre (festivals dedicated to a single food like steak, or porcini mushrooms) and antique fairs. They try to teach me how to "be Italian”—but it is still hard to eat dinner at 8:30.

I speak Italian. It’s impossible to recall how often church caretakers or museum docents have opened up and taken me on private tours because I could understand them. Or the number of times I learned about specialties in a restaurant that aren’t on the menu, or found the perfect Vino Nobile for the secondo piatto. Thanks to the the language I’ve learned to harvest grapes and olives to make wine and olive oil.

I live in Tuscany two months a year. My base is in Arezzo and from there I study Italian, branch out to discover new places and events, participate in festivals and daily markets, walk in the evening passeggiata, and make friends.

Now available, a book of true stories: Walking the Aqueduct: Tuscan Adventures and Culture. These are stories about my adventures and misadventures with insights into the culture along with smart travel hints. Available in both paperback and Kindle formats.

Contact: scott.grabinger@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/scott.grabinger
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scott-grabinger-3890b073
Photo Galleries: www.grabinger.com

Book descriptions: www.insidetuscanybooks.com
Tuscan itinerary ideas: www.insidetuscanytours.com