Verona

Built of pink-tinged marble in the 1st century AD, Verona's Roman amphitheatre survived a 12th-century earthquake to become the city’s legendary open-air opera house, with seating for 30,000 people. You can visit the arena year-round, though it’s at its best during the summer opera festival. In winter months, concerts are held at the Teatro Filarmonico. From October to May, admission is €1 on the first Sunday of the month.

Bristling with fishtail battlements along the river Adige, Castelvecchio was built in the 1350s by Cangrande II. Severely damaged by Napoleon and WWII bombings, the fortress was reinvented by architect Carlo Scarpa, who constructed bridges over exposed foundations, filled gaping holes with glass panels, and balanced a statue of Cangrande I above the courtyard on a concrete gangplank. The complex is now home to a diverse collection of statuary, frescoes, jewellery, medieval artefacts and paintings.

With its open kitchen, urbane vibe and hotshot chefs, you're right to expect great things from Locanda. Culinary acrobatics play second fiddle to prime produce cooked with skill and subtle twists. Whether it's perfectly crisp suckling pig lacquered with liquorice, or an epilogue of gianduja ganache with sesame crumble and banana, you will be gastronomically impressed.

For the best view of Verona, take a ride up the cable railway to the cypress-ringed Castel San Pietro (closed for restoration). Its ramparts are the domain of kissing couples enjoying the view of the medieval city embraced within the swooping bends of the Adige river. To descend, take the zigzagging staircase that leads back to the Ponte Pietra.

Fragrant with aromatic cocktail ingredients, this side-street micro-bar is one of the best places for a night-launching drink. Imaginative mixology combines with craft beers to give a lot of choice to drinkers, and the friendly owner knows his tipples.

In the shadow of the Torre dei Lamberti, the Romanesque Palazzo della Ragione is home to Verona's jewel-box Gallery of Modern Art. Reached via the Gothic Scala della Ragione (Stairs of Reason), the collection of paintings and sculpture spans the period from 1840 to 1940 and includes influential Italian artists such as Giorgio Morandi and Umberto Boccioni. Among the numerous highlights are Francesco Hayez' arresting portrait Meditazione (Meditation), Angelo Dall'Oca's haunting Foglie cadenti (Falling Leaves) and Ettore Berladini's darkly humorous I vecchi (Old Men).

Across the river from the historic centre, these sculpted gardens are considered a masterpiece of Renaissance landscaping, and are named after the noble family that has tended them since opening the gardens to the public in 1591. The vegetation is an Italianate mix of the manicured and natural, graced by soaring cypresses, one of which the German poet Goethe immortalised in his travel writings.

The flea market fills Piazza San Zeno and the surrounding streets, and is a feast of art nouveau light fittings, gramophone players, Fascist-era bike parts and lots of alarm clocks – a real mix of antiques and junk that you could spend all day browsing.

The Adige river is the second-longest river in Italy after the Po, running from the Reschen Pass in Austria to the Adriatic Sea. It is a defining feature of Verona, and rafting along it offers a surprising, new perspective as you pass beneath a dozen bridges past the Castelvecchio to finish at the ruins of the Venetian customs house.