Arquà Petrarca

Francesco Petrarca settled in this village in the Euganean Hills in 1370 and died there in 1374, reportedly found at his desk. The house he lived in survives and is open, with a sixteenth-century fresco cycle added by a later owner illustrating his poems, and his tomb, a raised marble sarcophagus, stands in the square below the church. The village added his name to its own in 1868. The surrounding hills produce a jujube liqueur, brodo di giuggiole, from a fruit grown here; the Italian phrase for being delighted, andare in brodo di giuggiole, refers to it. The village keeps its medieval street plan largely intact.

History

Excavations from the second half of the 19th century showed people here in the Bronze Age, and the Coast Lake within the town's bounds is one of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, a group inscribed by UNESCO in 2011 (Wikipedia, Arquà Petrarca).

Highlights

• Petrarch's house - the poet's last home with later illustrative frescoes.
• The tomb - a raised marble sarcophagus in the lower square.
• The medieval plan - a village largely unchanged in layout.
• The jujube liqueur - a local fruit drink with its own festival.

When to go

April to October; the jujube festival runs on the first two Sundays of October. The house museum closes Mondays. Summer weekends bring visitors from Padua.

Before you go

The village is very small and seen in an hour or two. The house holds few original objects. Parking is outside with a walk uphill.

Nearby

The Euganean Hills surround it; Padua lies northeast.

Key facts