Arquà Petrarca

In Arquà Petrarca, in the heart of the Euganean Hills, time seems to have stopped. This medieval village keeps its ancient charm intact more than any other. Its name could derive from "Arquata montium", or "cloister in the mountains", but it is made famous by the eternal legacy of Francesco Petrarca, the poet who spent the last years of his life here.

The city of the great poet ... pearl among the hills

«Extensive forests of chestnut, walnut, beech, ash and oak trees covered the slopes of Arquà, but it was above all the vines, olive trees and almond trees that contributed to creating the evocative and typical Arquà landscape» is how Francesco Petrarca describes Arquà, a small village of medieval layout where he spent the last years of his life, from 1370 to 1374. In the center of the church square, there is the poet's tomb, in red Verona marble. From Piazzetta San Marco, where the thirteenth-century Loggia dei Vicari is located, continue along Via Valleselle towards the House of Petrarca, from the fourteenth century, but enlarged in the sixteenth century, where you can still see the Poet's study, as well as some of his writings and his stuffed cat.