The Museum of Mural Painting isn't where you think — the real stays are inside the old city walls.

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Most visitors to Matassino assume the Museum of Mural Painting sits in a quiet outskirt. It doesn't. The museum anchors a dense medieval quarter where the streets narrow to shoulder-width and the main piazza fills with market stalls by 8am. Booking nearby means trading silence for the sound of clattering espresso cups and a 17th-century bell tower — a trade worth making if you want the city's best schiacciata within 40 steps of your door. Check live rates for hotels near Museum of Mural Painting before committing to a room farther out.

The museum itself occupies a former 14th-century convent, its frescoes climbing three stories of what was once the cloister. The walk from the entrance leads past a bakery that has been baking pane di Prato since 1875 — the smell of aniseed and almonds hits you before you see the sign. By late morning, the square in front of the museum fills with students sketching the façade, and the only seating left is on the stone steps. Come evening, the crowds thin, the bakery closes, and the only light comes from the museum's internal courtyard, visible through a wrought-iron gate. The neighbourhood is residential in the truest sense — laundry hangs from windows above the street, and the only restaurant open past 10pm is a trattoria two alleys east that doesn't have a menu in English.

Step out of the museum and turn left. You are 0.2 km from Casa Tosca Home Retreat, a three-star that puts you in the same medieval block as the frescoes — the walk is two minutes, barely enough time to decide which painting you'll go back to see first. Cross the piazza and Datini Apartment sits at the same distance, its entrance tucked behind a stone archway that dates to 1382. The owner leaves a key in a coded lockbox, and the window above the kitchen looks directly onto the museum's bell tower. Head three minutes in the other direction and La Trinuzia sits at 0.2 km as well, but the route takes you past the city's only gelateria that makes its own pistachio paste — a detour worth taking before you return to the room.

Book for a Tuesday or Thursday, when the museum stays open until 8pm and the late light hits the frescoes at an angle that makes the gold leaf catch fire. Arrive at the bakery by 7am if you want the pane di Prato fresh from the oven — by 8am, the queue snakes past the museum entrance. The museum's ticket office takes card but the bakery does not, so keep €5 in coins if you want breakfast on the way.