Aretine cuisine is a medley of Tuscan and Umbrian dishes that satisfies even the most demanding tourists.

As an appetizer you can have "crostini neri", that is, canapés with chicken liver paté, and "crostini rossi", or canapés with tomato and hot chilli. Obviously, you can also taste the Tuscan DOP ham produced in Casentino and Valtiberina white truffle.

As far as first courses are concerned, you are just spoilt with choice: you can have "gnocchi di ricotta", "tortelli di patate" (fresh pasta filled with potatoes), pici (a sort of handmade fresh spaghetti) and "acquacotta". What is acquacotta? It is a soup made of onions, tomatoes, eggs and croutons of stale bread.

Since one of the valleys that surround Arezzo is Valdichiana ... chianina steak is a must. You can have it with zolfini beans from Pratomagno or cèpes.

Other meat dishes are made with Valdarno`s chicken or porchetta (especially the one produced in Monte San Savino).

As a dessert you can have a slice of "gattò", a sort of cream roll sprinkled with icing sugar. Its name derives from the French word "gâteau" and maybe dates back to the period in which the French troops occupied Tuscany.

You can wash down your meal with some Chianti Colli Aretini, some Valdichiana Bianco or some Bianco Vergine.

And if you want to digest all of these dainties and go back home from your holidays in Tuscany as fit as a fiddle, leave your villa in Arezzo and have wonderful mountain-bike rides along the "Strada del Vino Terre di Arezzo".