Arquà Petrarca
Arquà Petrarca is a small village in the Euganean Hills, in the province of Padua, included in the club of I Borghi più belli d'It...
Updated 12 July 2026 · Sources: https://www.borghipiubelliditalia.it/borgo/arqua-petrarca/ · https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arqu%C3%A0_Petrarca
The story
The story of Arquà Petrarca
One of Italy's most beautiful villages
Arquà Petrarca belongs to the club of I Borghi più belli d'Italia, the association bringing together Italy's small historic centres of particular artistic and environmental value. The village unfolds on a slope of the Euganean Hills, with a medieval urban layout of cobbled alleys, stone houses with porticoes and small courtyards, substantially intact, making a walk through its streets one of the most immediate ways to grasp the town's atmosphere.
Francesco Petrarch's house
In the upper part of the village stands the house where Francesco Petrarch chose to spend the last years of his life, today converted into a museum. The building preserves rooms and furnishings that recreate the atmosphere of the poet's final residence, where he devoted himself to study and writing amid hillside quiet far from the cities, in keeping with the ideal of a retired life that Petrarch himself had expressed repeatedly in his works.
The poet's tomb
In front of the church of Santa Maria Assunta, in the town's main square, stands the tomb of Francesco Petrarch, a red stone chest raised on small columns, where the poet has been buried since 1374, the year of his death. Over the centuries the tomb has become a site of literary pilgrimage for scholars and admirers of Petrarch from around the world, and remains the most recognisable symbol of the bond between the village and the great humanist.
The Euganean Hills around the village
Arquà Petrarca sits among the Euganean Hills, a group of volcanic-origin hills rising in isolation on the Padua plain south of the city. Vineyards, olive groves and woodland cover the slopes of the surrounding hills, in a landscape that has drawn not only Petrarch but many other intellectuals and travellers over time, and which today is a destination for hikes and nature trails within the Euganean Hills Regional Park.
The jujube and brodo di giuggiole
The product most closely associated with Arquà Petrarca is the giuggiola, or jujube, the small fruit of the ziziphus jujuba tree cultivated in the village since ancient times. Its preparation gives rise to brodo di giuggiole, a traditional sweet liqueur made by cooking the fruit, which is the origin of the well-known Italian expression andare in brodo di giuggiole, meaning to be overjoyed. Growing and processing jujubes remains one of the village's most distinctive artisan traditions.
Experiences not to miss
- Visit Francesco Petrarch's house museum in the upper part of the village
- Pay tribute at the poet's tomb in front of the church of Santa Maria Assunta
- Wander the medieval alleys and stone houses of the historic centre
- Taste brodo di giuggiole and other jujube-based local products
- Walk the trails of the Euganean Hills surrounding the village
To see
What to see in Arquà Petrarca
Routes · Trovido Route
Routes in Arquà Petrarca
Jobs · JobFlow
