Verona is one of Italy's most romantic small cities — a UNESCO World Heritage centre threaded by the looping Adige River, framed by cypress-covered hills, and built from the same warm pink-hued marble that gives its piazzas their glow at sunset. Immortalised by Shakespeare as the setting of Romeo and Juliet, Verona has spent centuries as a crossroads of Roman, medieval, Venetian and Austrian influence, layering a 1st-century amphitheatre, Scaliger fortresses, Gothic churches and Renaissance palazzi into a compact, walkable old town.
Few arrivals suit Verona better than the train. The legendary Venice Simplon-Orient-Express calls at Verona as part of its classic Venice routings, easing travellers off polished 1920s and 1930s carriages and into a city that feels like a stage set for the golden age of European rail travel — all without the crowds and queues of a typical coach-tour stop.
Verona rewards travellers who linger: an evening opera under the stars at the Roman Arena, a stroll along the Adige at dusk, and a glass of Amarone in a candlelit enoteca are as much the point of a visit as the sightseeing itself.
- ✦Roman Arena opera performances under the stars
- ✦Juliet's balcony and the Romeo and Juliet legend
- ✦Pink marble piazzas and medieval Scaliger landmarks
- ✦Valpolicella and Amarone wine country nearby
- ✦UNESCO World Heritage old town on the Adige River
- ✦Aboard the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
- ✦Compact, walkable historic centre
Places to See in Verona
Arena di Verona
This 1st-century Roman amphitheatre, one of the best-preserved in the world, still hosts a spectacular open-air opera festival every summer, with tens of thousands of spectators watching Verdi and Puccini beneath the night sky.
Casa di Giulietta (Juliet's House)
A 13th-century courtyard house with a famous stone balcony, popularly linked to Shakespeare's heroine. Visitors leave love notes on the archway walls and rub the bronze statue of Juliet for luck.
Piazza delle Erbe
Verona's ancient forum-turned-market-square, ringed by frescoed medieval townhouses, the Torre dei Lamberti bell tower, and a daily market of flowers, souvenirs and produce beneath umbrellas.
Piazza dei Signori and the Scaliger Tombs
An elegant square dominated by a statue of Dante, flanked by the Palazzo della Ragione and the elaborate Gothic funerary monuments (Arche Scaligere) of the Della Scala family who once ruled the city.
Castelvecchio and Ponte Scaligero
A crenellated 14th-century fortress on the Adige, now a fine museum of medieval and Renaissance art, connected to the far bank by its trademark fortified brick bridge.
Verona Cathedral (Duomo)
A Romanesque-Gothic cathedral with an ornately carved main portal, housing Titian's Assumption of the Virgin above its altar.
Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore
Considered one of Italy's finest Romanesque churches, with a striking rose window, bronze relief doors, and a Mantegna altarpiece.
Ponte Pietra and Teatro Romano
Verona's oldest bridge, rebuilt from Roman stone after WWII bombing, leads to the hillside Roman theatre and the Archaeological Museum, with panoramic views over the terracotta rooftops.
Giardino Giusti
A refined Renaissance garden of clipped hedges, cypress alleys and grottoes, laid out in the 16th century on a terraced hillside above the city.
Food & Gastronomy
Verona sits within the Veneto's rich food and wine belt, and its cuisine mixes hearty mountain fare with the polish of a historic trading city. The surrounding Valpolicella hills produce some of Italy's most celebrated reds, making the city a natural base for wine lovers as well as sightseers.
- Risotto all'Amarone — creamy risotto slow-cooked with Amarone della Valpolicella, the region's powerful dried-grape red wine, often finished with Monte Veronese cheese.
- Pastissada de Caval — a traditional Veronese horse-meat stew, slow-braised with red wine and spices, historically tied to the city's equestrian past.
- Bigoli — thick, chewy wholewheat pasta typically served with a rich duck or anchovy-and-onion sauce.
- Pandoro — Verona's answer to panettone, a star-shaped, butter-rich sweet bread dusted with vanilla sugar, invented here and now a national Christmas staple.
- Monte Veronese DOP — a semi-hard cow's-milk cheese from the Lessinia hills, eaten young and fresh or aged and grating.
- Amarone, Valpolicella and Soave wines — Verona is the commercial heart of Veneto wine country; Soave's crisp whites and Valpolicella's reds (Ripasso and Amarone) can be tasted in enotecas throughout the old town.
The best introduction to local flavours is Piazza delle Erbe's morning market, followed by an aperitivo of Aperol Spritz — invented in the neighbouring Veneto region — on a café terrace as the evening light hits the pink marble facades.
