Verona
A beautiful and ancient city, “fair Verona” offers up jaw dropping archaeological sites, viewpoints with vistas to dream of and fine dining opportunities in every ‘vicolo’ or winding alley you turn down. Home to literary heroes Romeo and Juliet, Verona provides a fascinating tour for any Shakespeare enthusiast and is also well established as a place of romance; dubbed “the City of love”.
Why Verona is so named is often debated and there is no firmly established answer - in Italian the meaning of Verona is “truth” or “true meaning”. Being so close to glittering, often coveted Venice, Verona might be considered by some to be the less desirable destination of the two; a poorer relation. It is this very notion that makes Verona so special; it has all the Italian glitz of Venice, with less tourists and with accommodation and food costing just a fraction of the amount. Verona feels more intimate, more real.
When to go: Year round. April - October most temperate weather. Recommend visiting in December.
Essentials to pack: In December - Big coat, trainers, hat to cover ears. Summers can get hot in Verona so look at that weather forecast before packing!
Currency: Euro - £1 = €1.15
Must see: Roman Amphitheatre, Piazzale Castel San Pietro, Piazza delle Erbe, Juliet’s House, Ponte Pietra
How to get there: Train from London to Paris, connecting train to Milan and then train to Verona (www.eurostar.com and www.thetrainline.com/trains/europe) approx. £300 return, 12 hours travel time each way. Driving London to Verona 16 hours. 2 hour flights from London approx. £60 return in summer months (winter flights more expensive as cheaper carriers reduce their routes).
Public transport: Fast and efficient busses and trains operate throughout Verona. Public transport is mostly easy to use and runs frequently during the daytime. Buy tickets for trains and busses prior to getting on at nearby machines - they accept card or cash payments.
Where to stay: As the city is so easily traversed by foot due to it’s compactness, staying pretty much anywhere in the city is fine. We wanted to be close to sights we’d read up about and not too far from the train station ‘Porta Nuova’ where we would be arriving and departing from. We knew we wouldn’t be spending a long time in the room as we love to explore cities at length, so we wanted something practical, with all home comforts, but a good price. We stayed at Casa Esvael which we found on booking.com. It was a great base for exploring the city being very central and close to the River Adije, had great facilities and was only £225 for 3 nights in a double en suite room. The B&B is decorated very romantically with rooms named after characters from Romeo & Juliet and the owner provided us with some treats as it was our honeymoon. Everywhere in the city was walkable from this accommodation.
The view from our balcony at Casa Esvael
Verona card: Should you or shouldn’t you? It’s quite simple really - if you want to go to the main attractions in the city such as Juliet’s balcony, the Arena (amphitheatre), Castelvecchio museum, Verona cathedral, Juliet’s tomb etc. this card lets you visit all of them. The cards are only available for either 24 or 48 hours (it is only €25 for the 48 hour card) and allow you to visit these attractions over the time period once, as well as travel on busses in the city for free. In my opinion, it is a great idea to buy a Verona card if you are doing a short trip as it saves you money.
3 day itinerary:
Day 1:
Your first day in Verona; how exciting! Start your time here by wandering through the city at your leisure, heading north through Porta Borsari, an ancient archway which declares it is the entrance to the city. The winding pedestrianised streets (although watch out, this doesn’t appear to apply to vespa’s or motorbikes) will entice you deeper into the city, with shops and street vendors, a cacophony of noise from the tooting of bikes and Italian language buzzing through the air along with an onslaught of smells from fresh bakeries and osterias preparing for the lunchtime rush, you will immediately feel that rush of adrenaline that comes from exploring a new place.
Continuing on to Piazza delle Erbe, you are now in the beating heart of the city so spend your time admiring trinkets at the market in the centre of this busy market square. If you visit in December as we did, there are some fantastic Christmas markets in this central area that can take a few hours to explore whilst drinking a mulled wine. After you’ve looked at the market stalls, have a drink and some lunch at a nearby bar and spend the next hour people watching from your square-facing seat.
Bronze statue of “Juliet”; people used to touch her breast to change their luck in love, but this is now forbidden as damage was done to the statue.
Leaving your comfortable perch, head around the corner to Juliet’s balcony. If you’ve visited off peak then it may be quite quiet, but in summer months this location is often heaving with tourists. You can usually go up and stand on the balcony as well as visiting the courtyard, admiring the balcony and seeing the statue of Juliet. If you’ve seen the film “Letters to Juliet” then you will be familiar with the setting. Queuing to get up to the balcony can take quite a while as everyone wants to have their picture taken and spend some time on there. The staff had a good and fair system in place when we visited in 2021. As you leave the balcony area, you will find several touristic shops for souvenirs or places to post your letters to Juliet if you wanted to do so. Top tip - if you want to get ready for sightseeing in Verona, read “Romeo & Juliet” on the way there. It really refreshes the mind on the scenes used throughout the play.
After Juliet’s balcony, head East until you hit the Adije and then amble north along the riverbank, admiring the waterfront cafes and restaurants below ancient houses with shutters on the windows. Reaching the Ponte Pietra bridge, take some time to admire the architecture of the arched Roman construction. Built in 100 BC, this piece of history had to be rebuilt after it was damaged in WW2.
After soaking up the history here, traverse the bridge and head up the steep walkway towards Piazzele Castel San Pietro; a Roman fortress with panoramic views over the city. The walk up to the top is exhausting and if you are unable to undertake the climb, there is a funicular railway which can take you up (this is season dependant so make sure to check online first) for just €1.50 or €2.50 return.
The view at the top of Castel San Pietro is one of the best city lookouts I’ve ever been to; when we visited it was a quiet December day, cold but with a bright blue sky and the sun shining. We were rewarded for our efforts of the climb with a view of the city soaked in golden-honey hues, able to see as far as Verona reached as well as the river that encircled it. We watched the sun dip below the buildings before returning to ground level.
There are plenty of bars, restaurants and osterias which don’t open until late evening and are open until the early hours. Explore these at length and don’t forget to indulge in wine from local vineyards.
Day 2:
After an evening of exploring Verona’s restaurants, bars and nightlife, you may need a later start today! To set you up for another day of exploring, start the day with an extra strong espresso and a freshly baked pastry at a café in one of the central squares of the city, Piazza Bra, a vast space looking onto the ginormous form of the Roman Amphitheatre; the third largest in Italy after Rome’s colosseum and Capua’s amphitheatre. Built in 30 AD and able to seat 30,000 spectators, the sheer size of the structure is hard to comprehend until you get there.
From Piazza Bra, enter the amphitheatre, climb it’s great structure and be guided by the information boards throughout the site for historical facts. You can get an audio tour for an extra cost; we didn’t do this, preferring to roam around the stadium unguided. If you climb to the very highest seats of the amphitheatre you will be rewarded with views down onto the Piazza but also across much of Verona from all vistas. A visit here will take you approximately 1-2 hours depending on how much information you want to take in.
A 10 minute walk south east of the Arena will take you to Juliet’s tomb; perhaps a macabre destination but equally interesting and a must-see on my agenda. The Verona Card allows you to access the site and the museum here was much bigger than we had envisaged; we spent a good hour reading about the historical artefacts on site before heading down a steep spiral staircase to see the final resting place of Julie, considered to be a fictional character of Shakespeare’s but based on a real person from Verona.
We were peckish after a day of historical sightseeing and taking in a lot of information, so we decided to head back to Piazza Bra and find somewhere to get a drink and have some food. We stumbled across Vino-Liquori, a tiny bar down a side street selling local wines by the glass and serving up “Cicchetti”; small snacks or side plates served in Northern Italy. This particular bar were touting a variety of flavours of arancini which were to die for.
After our pre-drinks and pre-dinner snacks, we headed to Le Cantine de L’arena. We hadn’t bought tickets and were taking a chance that they had some seats available; we were in luck - we got the last two seats which were ‘front row’. Front row consisted of being a bit in the way as we were seated in what was essentially a walkway for restaurant staff delivering food and drinks to tables. A jazz bar born in the early 2000’s, the restaurant-come-music hall offers a unique experience; fine dining whilst watching some of the countries best jazz musicians. It is pricey here with drinks costing about €10-15 and an entry fee of €10pp for the seats we attained. Well worth the money and a must-do whilst in Verona. Starting at 8pm and going on until the early hours, we whiled away our time here getting into the music, drinking and chatting. It was one of our most memorable evenings in Italy.
Day 3:
Begin your final day here by touring Castelvecchio Museum; home to 4 floors and various additional turrets and rooms which showcase fine art and weaponry. The setting of the medieval castle makes the tour interesting not only from a historical viewpoint but also from an architechtural slant. Built in 1355, the castle is one of the most significant military buildings built by the Scaligeri family who once ruled as Lords of the city of Verona. After taking in the artefacts on display here, climb the ramparts to the outer walls of the castle and look down over the River Adjige and the outer parts of the city. You too will feel like you are Lord of the city from up here!
When you depart the castle, take some time to appreciate the Ponte Scaligero bridge, built from brick and marble and with three arches, it is a marvel of 14th century construction work. When we visited the bridge itself was home to a market with several stalls selling handmade jewellery and freshly baked cannoli.
After a stop for Italian baked goods on the bridge, cross back over and stop for a coffee at Dal Zovo Cantina & Bistrot - Corso Cavour, where the drinks and the atmosphere are perfect for daytime and evening visits. Heading north towards the city centre again, meander up to Verona’s cathedral, impressive from the outside and even more so from a trip inside (remember to cover shoulders and knees if you are entering a place of worship). Your Verona card will allow you to enter with no additional fee. Consecrated by the bishop of Verona in 362 AD, it was soon thought to be too small and was extended to create a bigger basilica. With beautifully intricate figurines and carvings on the internal ceilings, rose coloured marble columns and mosaic tile flooring, the interior of the church is an awe-inspiring sight.
The last stop on your trip is a viewpoint of the city from a more central spot. Go to Torre dei Lamberti, a medieval bell tower built by the Lamberti family in 1172. You can climb the 368 steps or take a glass lift to the top of the tower, where you will be rewarded with 360 degree views of the city from 84 metres high. A truly magnificent sight and one that will allow you to reflect on your time in Verona whilst looking over the city.
There’s always time for one more plate of pasta, right? Descending the tower, stop to inhale a plate of tagliatelle tartufo or mozzarella gnocci before you leave this Italian paradise.
