Hi, I’m Arpi.
I’ve called Cortona home for years. As an entrepreneur and local insider, I created Cortona Insider to give English-speaking visitors the kind of honest, practical guide I wished existed when I first arrived.
This isn’t a generic travel site. Every recommendation comes from personal experience — the restaurants I actually eat at, the hidden corners I love, the seasonal events worth planning your trip around.
Cortona is one of Tuscany’s most beautiful hilltop towns. I want you to experience it the way locals do.
What You’ll Find Here
Honest Reviews
No paid placements. Every recommendation is genuinely earned.
Local Knowledge
Insider tips you won’t find in guidebooks or on TripAdvisor.
Always Updated
Cortona changes with the seasons. So does Cortona Insider.
How Cortona Insider works
Cortona Insider is written by Arpi, who lives and works in Cortona. Arpi also runs MyTuscanDays, which offers private experiences, and Arpi Woodworking, an olive wood workshop on Via Guelfa. When an article mentions one of these, or a business that works with them, we say so on that page.
Listing in our directory is free. We do not sell rankings, reviews or places in our articles. Until this year a few businesses paid a yearly fee for a Verified Partner badge with extra photos. We no longer sell it, and the remaining badges end when their year runs out.
We also write sponsored articles. A sponsored article is always marked as Sponsored at the top of the page, its links to the business are marked as sponsored, and it never appears among our own recommendations.