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The creative Tuscan food is quite refined for the price at this intimate little place. On vegetarian Wednesdays, only one meat dish is available.

Off Piazza del Municipio, Sant’Agostino has a trove of paintings, starring the 13th-century St Francis by Margheritone d’Arezzo, Gaddi’s Madonna and Child and Bartolomeo della Gatta’s St Francis Receiving the Stigmata .

The cream of Arezzo’s sorry hotel crop, overhauled twice (in 1995 and 1999) to provide all the amenities in modern and eminently comfortable rooms. It’s pretty central, and there’s a terrace for breakfasts in warm weather.

Andrea del Castagno’s dramatic 1450 Last Supper . Note the turbulent marble panel behind the heads of Jesus and Judas.

Franca, Marcello and son Fabio produce Siena’s best ceramics. The black, white and “burnt sienna” designs are based on the Duomo’s floor panels.

One of the best Italian ceramicists, producing classy and whimsical designs. You can buy anything from a single piece to a full dinner service.

Charming little brick town. Benozzo Gozzoli teamed with Giusto di Andrea on the Giustiziati tabernacle in Santi Michele e Jacopo church. Also inside, a 1503 bust and 1954 tombstone commemorate Decameron author Boccaccio (1313–75), who may have been born here; the Casa del Boccaccio, in which he passed his final years, is now a small museum and study library.

This charterhouse, home to Carthusian monks from the 1300s to 1956, now serves the Cistercian Order. The building retains an original small monk’s church, a visitable cell and peaceful Renaissance cloisters set with della Robbia terracotta tondi and a small gallery of the Pontormo frescoes (1523–5).

Small-scale, luxury hotel converted from a 14th-century monastery. The hotel’s best antiques are in the public areas, leaving rooms simple but well-appointed. There’s a small pool in the garden.