Trattorias in Arezzo: Where to Eat the Town's Own Cooking
Trattorias in Arezzo, from Piazza Grande's Logge Vasariane to hand-rolled pasta at Osteria Da Giovanna, plus what to order and how an osteria differs.
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Book La Lancia d'Oro for a piazza dinner under the Logge Vasariane or Osteria Da Giovanna for hand-rolled pasta, and you have the two ends of Arezzo's trattoria scene covered. The city's family-run kitchens cook Tuscan and Aretine dishes rather than a tourist menu, and the choice comes down to occasion: a grand setting on Piazza Grande, a small dining room on Via Anconetana, or pizza from a wood oven. This guide sorts the named places by what they are actually good at, lists the dishes worth ordering and flags the weekly closures that catch people out.
What an Arezzo trattoria or osteria is, and how it differs from a restaurant
In Arezzo the words still mean something. A trattoria is a family kitchen with a short, changing menu of local cooking; an osteria was historically a simple wine-and-food house and today usually signals a smaller, more informal room with a keen eye on regional ingredients. A ristorante aims at a fuller service, a longer carte and often a more formal room. For a visitor the practical difference is pace and choice: trattorias and osterie reward ordering the Tuscan classics, while restaurants are where you go for a wider menu and a slower evening.
Slow Food's Osterie d'Italia guide is the reference serious eaters use for the osteria end of that spectrum. Its editors look for territorial cooking, carefully chosen ingredients and fair pricing, and award a snail symbol, the chiocciola, to places that stand out for food, setting and welcome. In the 2023 edition reported locally, 270 places across Italy carried the chiocciola, and five in Arezzo province were among them, though none in the city itself. If you want the names in the city, our guide to the best restaurants in Arezzo covers the fuller spread.
Where the family-run places cluster in the historic centre
Arezzo's historic centre is compact and uphill, and the eating is concentrated in a few pockets. Piazza Grande, with its sloping brick apron and the Logge Vasariane arcade along one side, holds the grandest addresses; the streets off Corso Italia and Via Cavour have the smaller trattorias; and Piazza San Francesco anchors the eastern end near the basilica. None of these is more than a ten-minute walk from another, so you can compare two or three on foot before deciding where to book.
That compactness matters at lunch. If you are spending the morning around Piazza Grande, a midday plate of pasta under the loggia saves a climb, while an evening booked on Via Anconetana puts you in a quieter residential edge of the centre. Treat the geography as your first filter and the menu as your second, rather than chasing a single 'best' address across town.
La Lancia d'Oro: three generations under the Logge Vasariane on Piazza Grande
La Lancia d'Oro is the obvious first booking for many visitors because of where it sits: in the heart of the historic centre, under the Logge Vasariane, looking onto Piazza Grande. The family behind it has run restaurants since 1980 and is now on its third generation, and the kitchen turns out Aretine and Tuscan cooking alongside hand-made pasta and home-baked bread. The house also names Chianina, the local cattle breed, as a symbol of Aretine tradition, so beef is where to look on the carte.
The restaurant serves lunch from 12:00 to 15:30 and dinner from 19:00 to 22:30, and closes on Mondays; booking is welcome rather than compulsory. The same family runs Logge Vasari next door, which serves continuously from 12:00 to 23:00 and closes on Tuesdays. That pairing is useful: a Monday lunch or a Tuesday dinner slots into whichever kitchen is open, and the two closing days together are the single most common trap for anyone planning a fixed evening. If you want to start with a drink in the piazza before eating, our guide to aperitivo in Arezzo covers the options.
Osteria Da Giovanna: hand-rolled pasta on Via Anconetana
Osteria Da Giovanna sits on Via Anconetana, on the quieter edge of the centre, and its identity is fresh pasta. The kitchen rolls and cuts tagliatelle and tagliolini by hand, builds its sauces by eye rather than by measure, and cooks roasts in the older Tuscan register. This is the address to choose when the meal you want is a plate of pasta and a glass of something red, in a small room, without ceremony.
The sauces follow the seasons and the cook's judgement, so ask what has been made that morning rather than scanning for a fixed signature dish. Because the room is small and the pasta is made in limited quantities, this is the sort of place where a phone call ahead is worth the two minutes, especially at weekends when Aretini eat out themselves. If you prefer a lighter midday stop, our lunch in Arezzo picks cover the quicker options.
Trattoria Cavour 42: Tuscan starters and meat on Via Cavour
Trattoria Cavour 42 on Via Cavour is the most straightforwardly traditional of the city's trattorias: a genuine Tuscan menu, local ingredients and a kitchen that cooks to order. The starters are the reason to come, with crostini toscani topped with fegatini (a rough chicken-liver pâté), Tuscan salumi such as salame and prosciutto, and pecorino and fresh cheeses. Mains lean heavily on meat, as Tuscan cooking does, and the menu includes trippa alla fiorentina, tripe stewed in tomato, plus grilled meats and tagliata, sliced seared beef. Porcini mushrooms appear when the season allows, and there are fish dishes for anyone avoiding meat.
Order the crostini as a shared plate and then choose between tripe and tagliata depending on how hungry you are; both are substantial. Because the kitchen cooks everything to order, a table here suits a relaxed lunch rather than a rushed one. If your day is built around grazing rather than a full sit-down meal, the street food in Arezzo guide is the better fit.
Le Chiavi d'Oro on Piazza San Francesco and Da Oreste for pizza
Le Chiavi d'Oro occupies Piazza San Francesco and describes its cooking as tradition and innovation in a refined, welcoming room. It is the choice for an evening when you want a proper table, a considered plate and a setting with some presence, rather than a quick bowl of pasta. For a drink before or after in the same square, see our aperitivo in Arezzo notes on where to sit.
Da Oreste on Via Einstein, away from the medieval core, is the city's pizza address in this group: a natural sourdough starter, a rise of 36 to 48 hours and a wood-fired oven. The long fermentation is aimed at a lighter, more digestible crust, and the house style is a gourmet pizza rather than a cheap slice. It works as the casual end of an Arezzo eating plan, when the trattoria table has already been used at lunch. For more addresses, see the best pizza in Arezzo.
The dishes to order: crostini di fegatini, trippa alla fiorentina, tagliata, Chianina
Four orders cover most of what Arezzo's trattorias do well. Crostini di fegatini are slices of toasted bread spread with a chicken-liver pâté, the standard Tuscan opener; trippa alla fiorentina is tripe slow-cooked with tomato, onion and herbs, a dish that divides visitors and rewards the curious. Tagliata is beef seared and sliced rare, served with olive oil and often rocket or salt, and Chianina is the local breed to look for when the menu names its beef. Order the crostini to share, then one meat dish each.
At Lancia d'Oro the Chianina is singled out as a house symbol, so the beef is the natural main course there; Trattoria Cavour 42 is where the liver crostini, salumi and pecorino board make most sense as a starter spread. Pasta is the third pillar: hand-made at Lancia d'Oro, hand-rolled at Da Giovanna. A sensible pattern is one shared antipasto, one pasta between two, and a meat main, which leaves room for the town's pastry or ice cream afterwards.
Booking, lunch versus dinner, and the Monday and Tuesday closures that catch people out
Lunch is the easier sitting to book late: Lancia d'Oro's kitchen opens at 12:00, which suits a meal before an afternoon of walking. Dinner runs from 19:00 to 22:30 there, and booking is welcome rather than required. For a table at a small osteria on a weekend, phone ahead; for a midweek lunch, a call ahead is still the safer bet. Note that some kitchens close one day a week and the days differ by venue, so match your evening to the place that is open.
The most common planning error is assuming every restaurant in the city shares a closing day. In this family's case one room shuts on Monday and the other on Tuesday, and it is worth checking the venue you have chosen rather than the town as a whole before you set out. If your evening plans sit around the piazza, the Best Restaurants in Arezzo guide will help you line up a table and a before-dinner drink.
Osterie outside the city with a Slow Food chiocciola
The strongest osteria cooking near Arezzo is outside the walls. In the 2023 Osterie d'Italia selection, the province's chiocciola holders were Il Tirabusciò at Bibbiena, Osteria del Teatro at Cortona, Belvedere at Monte San Savino, La Tana degli Orsi at Pratovecchio Stia, and the Agriosteria La Casa del Buono at Terranuova Bracciolini, which was new to the list that year. Each is a destination in its own right, with the kind of short, local menu the guide rewards.
Treat the snail as a signal of style rather than a rating you can bank: it is a past guide's judgement and the list changes with each edition. If you are basing a day around one of these kitchens, book and then build the rest of the trip loosely, because rural osterie work to their own hours and their own seasons. For a final sweet stop closer to the city, our guide to the best gelato in Arezzo is the easy add-on.
Which Arezzo trattoria should you book first?
Book La Lancia d'Oro if you want the piazza setting and the beef, Osteria Da Giovanna if a bowl of hand-rolled pasta is the point of the meal, and Trattoria Cavour 42 if the plan is liver crostini followed by something slow-cooked. Le Chiavi d'Oro suits a dressed-up evening, and Da Oreste covers the night you want pizza instead. Choose one for lunch and one for dinner, and the closing days will rarely interfere.
Before you set out, confirm the sitting you want with the restaurant itself, since lunch and dinner hours vary between these kitchens. A quick look at our Best Restaurants in Arezzo guide, which covers the city's full spread, will help you fill any gap in the week.
Explore more Arezzo food guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need to book a trattoria in Arezzo?
Booking is welcome at the larger family restaurants such as La Lancia d'Oro, and sensible at small osterie where the pasta is made in limited batches. For a weekend dinner or a group, phone ahead; at smaller rooms a call before you set out is always the safer bet.
What is the difference between a trattoria and an osteria in Italy?
A trattoria is a family kitchen serving a short, changing menu of local dishes, while an osteria began as a simple wine-and-food house and today usually means a small, informal room focused on regional ingredients. In practice both are places to order the Tuscan classics rather than a long international carte.
How much does a meal at a trattoria in Arezzo cost?
The city's trattorias do not publish uniform prices, and they change with the season and the menu, so check the carte at the door or ask when you book rather than budgeting from an old figure. For a cheaper meal, lunch is the easier sitting.
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