Verona, Italy

The guy who gives this website has a very good chapter in his guidebooks, both Italy and Venice, on Verona. He goes into all of the questions you have answered in detail.

Several of your previous questions have been for areas he may not go, but Verona is classic Rick Steves territory. You can search on youtube or Hulu for his TV shows from there.

A nice place to visit. Very nice.

How long are you planning to stay in Verona? Many people see it as a day trip or a quick overnight, while others linger for several days. Are you staying there long enough for a day trip to Lake Garda?

Things to do in town (which as Nigel pointed out are covered very well in the guide books) are to see the roman arena in Piazza Bra (catch an opera there if it is during the summer opera season), Castlevecchio, and mostly just walk around seeing the lovely architecture and piazzas, "Juliet's" balcony, pop into a couple lovely churches, people watching, eating great food...

A bit away from the other attractions, but perfectly walkable (15 minutes?) is the basilica of San Zeno. My Cadogan Guide calls it, "one of the finest Romanesque buildings anywhere." The facade, the bronze doors, and the interior art work are all not-to-be-missed gems.

If you plan to be there in summer then you should go see opera performed at the ancient Roman colosseum in the center of town. There is nothing like it anywhere else and is a wonderful experience! It's done on the grandest of scales and the setting is magnificent.

Look at the Verona Card website. It lists just about all the attractions in the city.

Skip the arena or coliseum if no event. Not worth the price. We enjoyed verona a lot. I used ricks book. Highly recommend the castle also the above ground tombs were neat. Enjoyed walking through the old entrances to the town. Will certainly go back to verona.

Ditto to what Nigel said. The answers to your questions are all very well summarized in the RS book for either Italy or "Venice and the Veneto". We LOVED Verona.

Here are some photos I took, if you're interested: Verona in May 2011 and 2013

I was going to recommend the Museo Archeologico and Teatro Romano, but both are closed for the next year de so for restoration and stabilization.

But I will!still go ahead and recommend Osteria il Bertoldo for dinner. We had an excellent meal there--- the food is very good, the room is lovely and the owner very welcoming.

Verona was our first town to visit in Italy for a few days, and we loved it. We stayed at Hotel Aurora on Piazza de Erbe. We picked up the Verona Card and really enjoyed seeing the old part of Verona through options on that card. Also, notice the beautiful pink granite/marble streets in the shopping area near Piazza de Erbe where the evening passeggiata occurs. Piazza Bra is also a fun area with a small park near the arena.

Check out valpolicellatours.com Laura is the owner and she can take you anywhere in and around Verona. She is from there and her family has a long history there with there winery in Valpolicella. When we took her private tour last year she was planning to open a B&B at her family home in Verona, but I am not sure if it is done yet. At any rate, she picked my husband and I up at our inn in Verona and drove us all over Valpolicella and gave us a tour of her family vineyard, along with very generous tastings. She also took us back to our inn. It was only 120 euros for the whole day for both of us.

As I said, she will customize a tour. Her options are endless and she is such a wealth of local knowledge.

Have I told you about the time I saw a lady walking a raccoon on a leash in downtown Verona? Buon viaggio!

Thanks for the quick responses. We plan to spend 4 days in and around Verona. A trip to Lake Garda is a good possibility. Any suggestions there would be helpful as well. We're definitely planning to check out Valpolicella and revisit Rick's book "Italy". We will be there in early October. Not aware of any festivals happening there at that time but would welcome information of such events, should there be any.

Thanks again,

steven

CRAP I loved Verona. It was the first city we visited last year, and so it holds a special place in my heart. My husband compared it to Disney World after our trip was over -- after we had smelled the fish markets of Venice, the funky river in Florence, and gotten sweaty and grimy in Rome -- because it was so clean, well organized and polite. I loved Verona. Piazza Bra is beautiful and chaotic, and the absence of cars is wonderful. The fake "Juliette" stuff was hilarious and fun, and I love the photo I have now of me cupping the statue's breast. The food was great, and we didn't even mind the overpriced drinks in the Piazza. We climbed to the top of the hill across the river and saw the whole city laid out for us in the ruins of an old church, and tried to dicker in the expensive shops. When a local music star was performing in the arena, we caught Ligabu fever and chanted right along with everyone waiting to get inside. Anyway, it's a beautiful city. I guess I don't really have any suggestions, I just wanted to reminisce about Verona for a minute. :-)

Hi Steven, lucky you visiting Verona! I spent four nights there just a few weeks ago in May. Of all the places I've visited in Italy, I think Verona best combines the feeling of an ancient town with a very modern lifestyle. Lots of wide open spaces, traffic-free areas, and places to stroll and explore. I spent my first evening and then first full day and that evening in Verona. Used a 24-hour Verona Card to visit many of the principal sites, including Arena, Tower and four churches. I agree that visiting the interior of the large Arena is not so special when empty, although terrific when the opera is happening, or likely another performance that draws a crowd. The whole area from Piazza Bra to Piazza Erbe offers wonderful strolling and window shopping, with few or no vehicles, and wide marble pedestrian streets. Had my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to eat not only horse meat but donkey, and found neither one either wonderful or horrible, let's say moderately tasty. I took two day-trips on my other days. One was to Ravenna to visit the amazing mosaics. It's usually a 3-hour train ride from Verona, through Bologna, but well in advance I found a 7:50 am fast train and super economy ticket which cut that to 2 hours. Wandering around Ravenna was easy, flat and fun, more people of all ages riding bicycles to get around than I've ever seen outside of China. I visited the four main mosaic sites, and would have liked to have a guide for San Vitale, as the quantity, quality, size and complexity of the mosaics in that large church were quite overwhelming, and there were various groups of visitors and students there with guides who were learning more than I was. Also had a great lunch at Ca' de Ven, the gnocchi with scallops and squash blossoms, with a piadina on the side, was one of the outstanding dishes of my whole trip to Italy. The train trip back took longer, but I broke it up with a couple hours in Bologna to walk around downtown, see the leaning towers and have a too-quick Bolognese dinner. My final day in a Verona I went to visit Lake Garda. For one day, you really need to choose the north or the south, there's too much travel time involved to try to do both. I chose south, took an early bus from Verona to Sirmione, an interesting but mostly very touristy area and castle town, then took a ferry to Bardolino, where I explored the small town and went to the Zeni Winery with wine museum and tasting, and caught the bus back to Verona. Next morning on from Verona to Venice with a stop for the wonderful Mercado in Padova. Hope all that gives you some ideas.

Thanks Larry and Danielle,

Your responses were very encouraging. The open flat spaces will be a welcome change after the hilltowns we'll be coming from. It should be a very restful but inspiring stop for us

steven

near verona there is Valeggio sul mincio, where you can visit the amazing Parco Sigurtà http://www.sigurta.it/index.php

and one of the most beatiful village in italy: Borghetto sul mincio