Verona

The Arena, Piazza delle Erbe and Castel San Pietro on foot

Two days cover Verona's core sights on foot. Day one takes in the Arena, Piazza delle Erbe, the Torre dei Lamberti and the funicular to Castel San Pietro; day two follows the Adige to Castelvecchio and San Zeno Maggiore, with a Valpolicella winery or a summer Arena opera to finish.

Day one, morning. Be at the Arena when it opens, before the tour groups, and climb to the top tiers for the view over Piazza Bra. Then walk up Via Mazzini, the main shopping street, to Piazza delle Erbe. Cut through the arch to Piazza dei Signori, see the Scaliger tombs beside Santa Maria Antica, and climb the Torre dei Lamberti or ride its lift.

Afternoon and evening. Look into Sant'Anastasia and the Duomo, then cross Ponte Pietra and take the funicular to Castel San Pietro for the river view. Come back down for an aperitivo in the Carega quarter by the cathedral.

Day two. Follow the river to Castelvecchio, spend an hour or two in its museum, and walk out onto the fortified bridge. Continue west to San Zeno Maggiore and its bronze doors. Give the afternoon to a Valpolicella winery, or, in July and August, rest up for an evening opera at the Arena. Skip Juliet's house unless the courtyard is quiet.

Bigoli, pastissada de caval and Amarone risotto

Verona eats hearty inland food. Order bigoli, the thick local pasta, pastissada de caval (horse braised and served with polenta), bollito misto with pearà in winter, and risotto made with Amarone. Drink Valpolicella, Soave or Bardolino in the wine bars of the Carega quarter, and eat more cheaply across the river in Veronetta.

Verona's cooking is inland and hearty. The city has a long taste for horse meat: pastissada de caval is a slow braise, usually served with polenta, and picula de caval is a spiced minced version. Bigoli, thick hand-extruded spaghetti, is the local pasta. In winter, look for bollito misto, a platter of boiled meats served with mostarda, fruit candied in a mustard syrup, and with pearà, a peppery bread sauce. Risotto all'Amarone uses the region's big red wine.

Pandoro, the tall star-shaped Christmas cake, comes from Verona too. Pizza is not a local tradition, but plenty of places serve it.

For wine, Valpolicella and Amarone are the reds from the hills to the north, Soave is the white from the east, and Bardolino comes from the shores of Lake Garda. The best places to drink them are the old wine bars around the Duomo in the Carega quarter. Piazza delle Erbe works for morning coffee and an evening spritz. For cheaper meals, cross the river to Veronetta, where the university keeps prices down.

Lake Garda, Valpolicella and Vicenza by train

The best day trips from Verona are Lake Garda in summer and the Valpolicella wineries at harvest time. Trains reach Peschiera and Desenzano on Garda, while Vicenza, Mantua and Venice (about 75 minutes) are all on direct rail lines. Valpolicella and Soave are easiest with a car or a guided wine tour.

Lake Garda is the obvious escape on a hot day. Trains on the Milan line stop at Peschiera del Garda and Desenzano on the southern shore, and Sirmione, on its narrow peninsula, is a short bus ride further.

Valpolicella starts just north of the city. Its villages and wineries are easiest with a car or a guided wine tour, since public transport is thin. Amarone is the wine to taste. Soave, to the east, is a walled wine town with a castle on the hill above it.

By train, Vicenza is close on the Venice line, with Palladio's Teatro Olimpico and villas, and Mantua, the Gonzaga court city where Romeo was sent into exile in the play, is a short regional ride south. Venice is also within reach, about an hour and a quarter by fast train, but it deserves at least a night of its own. If you only have one spare day, choose Garda in summer and Valpolicella in the autumn harvest.

Opera nights at the Arena, June to September

The Arena di Verona Opera Festival runs in summer inside the Roman amphitheatre, and the 2026 season, its 103rd, is staged from 12 June to 12 September with a new production of La Traviata opening it. Seats range from numbered stalls to unnumbered stone steps, and tickets sell through arena.it.

The amphitheatre dates from the 1st century AD and is one reason UNESCO listed the whole city of Verona as a World Heritage Site in 2000. It still holds crowds of many thousands, and the festival has used it as an open-air opera house since 1913, when a production of Aida marked the centenary of Verdi's birth. Aida, Carmen, Nabucco and Turandot return in most years, alongside a few gala and ballet nights.

Performances start after dark, around 21:00 in high summer, and the big productions with several intervals can run well past midnight. The stone steps get hard after a few hours, so bring something soft to sit on and a layer for the late finish. The upper tiers are steep, so wear shoes with grip.

Book early for Saturday performances and for the most popular titles, which sell out. If rain stops a show before a set point in the performance, the festival's own terms decide whether tickets are refunded, so read them when you buy. On nights without opera, the Arena opens as a monument by day and is worth an hour on its own.

Roman Verona continues beyond the Arena. Porta Borsari, the old city gate on Corso Porta Borsari, still marks the line of the Roman road, and the Roman theatre sits across the Adige below Castel San Pietro, with the archaeological museum in the former convent above it. Ponte Pietra, the bridge that leads there, was blown up by retreating German troops in 1945 and rebuilt stone by stone in the 1950s with fragments fished out of the river. Its two arches nearest the left bank are Roman; the other three were replaced in the 13th century. Walk across at dusk on an opera night and you can hear the orchestra tuning up on the far side of the old town.

The Roman theatre still has a summer season of its own, the Estate Teatrale Veronese, with plays, dance and jazz. If you plan to see several sights, the Verona Card covers the Arena, the Roman theatre, Castelvecchio and the Torre dei Lamberti, and includes urban ATV buses (not the airport shuttle) for its validity.