we are not certain that the XV^th century house at 28, Via dell’Orto, which is now known as Petrarch’s house, is his birthplace. There is no doubt that the poet was born in Arezzo as he, himself, said in his ‘Letter to Posterity’: “I was born in Arezzo, in exile, in 1304, on Monday,20^th July at dawn”. He also repeats it in other letters: in his letter to Boccaccio, for example, he even adds “in the lane which is called ‘dell’Orto’” (Senili,  l. VIII, ep. I) and in the letter to Giovanni d’Arezzo he describes the visit to the house of his birth on his journey back from Rome for the Jubilee in 1350. He said he was brought into a small and hidden lane (“vicus intimus”), commonly called ‘dell’Orto’ and was shown a house there, which was neither big nor beautiful, but suitable enough for an exile and so he was informed he was born there. In the following years the owner of the house was denied the permission to enlarge that, as the Republic of Arezzo wanted the house to remain as it was when the poet had lived in it. On this occasion he confessed he had received more honours from Arezzo than from Florence, the town of his family. (Senili,  l. XIII, ep. III). 

So even if all historians agree about the street, there is a big debate on the exact location of the house. 

Some historians say the house was not at the end of Via dell’Orto, but right at the beginning. In fact on the corner of the house which is now at n. 4, there was a small lane leading to a public well, which could be just as well called “vicus intimus”. 

Anyway since the beginning of the XIX^th century the beautiful house in Renaissance style at n. 28 has been officially recognised as Petrarch’s birth house. Some restoration works in the years 1926-27 brought to light some XIII^th century elements: door-arches, a tabernacle, a little window and traces of a staircase. The building was much smaller and isolated from the rest of the houses and the entrance was from a small lane joining Via dell’Orto to Via degli Albergotti. Now when you enter the cloister you can imagine finding this lane on your right. Then when you pass the door at the end of it you will already be inside the small XIII^th century flat which only occupied what is now the Conference Room on the  first floor. So according to this hypothesis the poet was born in this room. 

Nowadays this house is the head office of the prestigious ‘Petrarch’s Academy of Letters, Arts and Sciences’,  which was founded in Arezzo in 1788 and boasts a rich library of over 20.000 books.