Arezzo, Italy - I Would Live Here

I learned a lot more about Arezzo from the internet and from walking around and have decided that if I ever moved to Italy, this is the place I would live. It is actually a big city - a population of about 100,000, which is a growth of 10,000 people over the past 10 years. It is considered an artistic community - as is Cartona nearby.

These are the things I like about this city:
1. It is a total walking city if you want. You can walk to the train station instead of having to take a bus as you do in many cities;
2. It has a great mixture of old building and new ones;
3. You can see different artist's shops as you walk around town - lots of painters but also other type of art;
4. It is close to many other big cities such as Florence, and it's not that far from Montepulciano!
5. It is a small hub for trains so you can get direct trains to Rome, Naples and Milan;
6. It has better shopping than most other medium sized cities;
7. You can buy a cappuccino and a croissant for between 1,90 and 2 euro.
8. Good Tuscany style food and wine available;
9. The locals have all been very friendly in the shops and have tried to help me with my Italian.
10. It's not too touristy - yet.

The not so good side:
1. It's not a biking city but I have seen lots of athletes in their biking clothes tooling up the hills - while I am huffing and puffing walking up the hills with Seymour strapped to me :)
2. Crazy drivers, but that is the same everywhere I have been.
3. Still have to search to find some items; as far as I can tell, there is nothing like a Walmart here; selections on many items are limited. Again that is the same as every other place I've been.
4. They seem to like cats more than dogs based on the number of shelves of food they have at the supermarket.

We spent time walking around the booths scattered throughout the main part of the city looking at antiques and other interesting things. Reminded me of Wimberley Market Days but I didn't get stuck in traffic. Here are some pics around the market:














Other pictures of some of the buildings:












Views from the city park. This city isn't too high up so you don't get the long views, but they still are pretty. And as you can see, there is a wall around the city:













Interesting statue:





They are having a city meeting on Wed. to talk about tourism so I took their email address down and thought I'd send them some ideas on being more dog friendly :) Overall, it is a very dog friendly city and there are lots of people with dogs but I still think they should not have "no dogs" signs but instead "well behaved dogs in carriers" allowed signs. I'm going to propose that! Otherwise, this is a very livable city and I have taken Seymour into every restaurant with no problem.


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