Sights in Verona
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Roman Arena
The pink marble Roman Arena was built in the 1st century AD and survived a 12th-century earthquake to become Verona’s legendary open-air opera house, with seating for 30,000 people. Placido Domingo made his debut here, and the annual June to August opera season includes 50 performances by the world’s top names. In winter months classical concerts are held across the way at the 18th-century Ente Lirico Arena.
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Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore
A masterpiece of Romanesque architecture, the striped brick and tuffo stone Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore was built in honour of the city’s patron saint from the 12th to 14th centuries. Enter through the graceful flower-filled cloister into the vast nave, lined with 12th- to 15th-century frescoes depicting Jesus, Mary Magdelene modestly covered in her curtain of golden hair and St George casually slaying a dragon atop a startled horse. Under the rose window depicting the Wheel of Fortune are meticulously detailed 12th-century bronze doors, including a scene of an exorcism with a demon yanked from a woman’s mouth. Painstaking restoration is reviving Mantegna’s 1457–59 …
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Roman Theatre
Across Ponte Pietra, north of the city centre, is a Roman Theatre, built in the 1st century. The bridge is a quiet but remarkable testament to the Italians' love of their artistic heritage. The two arches on the left date from the Roman Republican era (1st century BC), while the other three were replaced in the 13th century. Then in 1945, retreating German troops blew the bridge. The Veronese fished the stonework out of the river and painstaking rebuilt the bridge in the 1950s.
The theatre itself, cunningly carved into the hillside at a strategic spot overlooking a bend in the river in the 1st century BC was once three times as high as what remains today.
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Giardino Giusti
This lush sculpted garden is named after the noble family that has looked after it and the mansion since opening the garden to visitors in 1591, and it’s lost none of its charm over the centuries: the vegetation is an Italianate mix of the sculpted and natural, graced by soaring cypresses, one of which the German poet Goethe immortalised in his travel writings. According to local legend, lovers who manage to find each other in the little labyrinth at the right of the garden are destined to stay together. On the far end of the garden, a short climb is rewarded with romantic, sweeping views over the city.
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Duomo
Verona’s 12th-century duomo is a striking striped Romanesque building, with polychrome reliefs and the bug-eyed statues of Charlemagne’s paladins Roland and Oliver, by medieval master Nicolò, on the west porch. Nothing about this sober facade hints at the extravagant interior, frescoed over the 16th to 17th centuries with angels in the trompe l’œil architecture. At the left end of the nave is the Cartolari-Nichesola Chapel, designed by Jacopo Sansovino with a vibrant Titian Assumption, showing astonished crowds pointing at the airborne Madonna.
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Chiesa di San Fermo
At the river end of Via Leoni, Chiesa di San Fermo is actually two churches in one: Franciscan monks raised the 13th century Gothic church right over an original 11th- century Romanesque structure. Inside the main Gothic church, you’ll notice a magnificent timber carena di nave, a ceiling reminiscent of an upturned boat’s hull. In the right transept are 14th-century frescoes, including some fragments depicting episodes in the life of St Francis. Stairs from the cloister lead underground to the spare but atmospheric Romanesque church below.
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Chiesa di Sant’Anastasia
North of the Arche Scaligere stands the Gothic 13th to 15th century Chiesa di Sant’Anastasia, Verona’s largest church and a showcase for Veronese art. The multitude of frescoes is overwhelming, but don’t overlook Pisanello’s storybook-quality fresco St George Setting out to Free the Princess from the Dragon in the Pisanelli Chapel, or the 1495 holy water font featuring a lucky hunchback by Paolo Veronese’s father, Gabriele Caliari.
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Casa di Giulietta
Just off Via Giuseppe Mazzini, central Verona's main shopping street, is the Casa di Giulietta. Never mind that Romeo and Juliet were fictional characters with no resemblance to Veronese nobility, and that there’s hardly room for two on the narrow stone balcony. Romantics flock to this 14th century house to add their lovelorn pleas to the graffiti on the courtyard causeway and rub the right breast of the bronze statue of Juliet for better luck next time.
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Juliet's House
Romeo and Juliet may have been fictional, but at Juliet's House (Casa di Giulietta) you can swoon beneath what popular myth says was her balcony or, if in need of a new lover, approach a bronze statue of Juliet and rub her right breast for good luck. Others have made their eternal mark by adding to the scribbled love graffiti on the courtyard walls.
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Piazza delle Erbe
Originally the site of a Roman forum, this piazza buzzes with life. With permanent market stalls in its centre, the square is lined with some of Verona's most sumptuous buildings including the baroque Palazzo Maffei, at the north end, and the adjoining 14th-century Torre del Gardello. On the east side is Casa Mazzanti, a former Della Scala family residence.
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Castelvecchio Museum
Carlo Scarpa’s revived Castelvecchio makes a fitting home for Verona’s museum showcasing a diverse collection of frescoes, jewellery, medieval artefacts and paintings by Pisanello, Giovanni Bellini, Tiepolo, Carpaccio and Veronese, plus wonderful temporary shows ranging from Andrea Mantegna retrospectives to modernist glass.
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Torre dei Lamberti
For superb views of Verona, take the lift or your feet up this 84m-high tower, built in stages from the 12th century (with a slight setback in 1403 when lightning knocked its top off). Sporting an octagonal bell tower, its two bells retain their ancient names: 'rengo' once called meetings of the city council, while 'marangona' warned citizens of fire.
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Arche Scaligere
Walk through the archway at the far end of Piazza dei Signori to these ornate Gothic funerary monuments, the elaborate tombs of the Della Scala family, in front of the little Santa Maria Antica church. In the courtyard behind the Arche, have a look at the scavi (excavation work) that's been done on this part of medieval Verona.
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Chiesa di San Lorenzo
Southwest from Piazza delle Erbe towards the Ponte Scaligero is the Chiesa di San Lorenzo, a Romanesque church raised in the early 12th century but much altered with Gothic and Renaissance additions. The most unusual element – virtually unique in Italy – are the two cylindrical towers that flank the entrance.
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Palazzo Forti
Palazzo Forti is home to the new Galleria d’Arte Moderna, with 90 artworks from the 1970s to today and ambitious exhibits showcasing international modern artists such as MC Escher and Sol LeWitt, plus well-curated photography shows in the adjoining Scavi Scaligeri.
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Tomba di Giulietta
Morbid romantics seek out the Tomba di Giulietta, a cloister featuring a red marble coffin long used as a drinking trough, a motley collection of 1st-century Roman amphorae and, upstairs, some frescoes of minor interest, mostly from the 16th century.
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Loggia del Consiglio
Occupying the north side of Piazza dei Signori is the 15th-century Loggia del Consiglio, the former city council building and Verona's finest Renaissance structure. It is attached to the Palazzo degli Scaligeri, once the main residence of the Della Scala clan.
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Amphitheatre
The pink marble Roman amphitheatre was built in the 1st century AD and survived a 12th-century earthquake to become Verona’s legendary open-air opera house, with seating for 30,000 people.
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Museo Archeologico
Museo Archeologico houses an interesting collection of Greek and Roman pieces.
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