Red-tiled roofs of old Verona around a long market square, with a brick tower and a white baroque palace facing it

Veneto, Italy

Verona

Piazza delle Erbe and the rooftops of Verona's old town, seen from above. (Orledio / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0)

The largest city of the Veneto, set in a loop of the Adige. A Roman colony, then the seat of the della Scala lords, later ruled by Venice and made an Austrian fortress, it keeps a Roman amphitheatre still used for summer opera, Romanesque churches and a historic centre that UNESCO lists for its urban structure and architecture.

Neighbourhoods

  • Città Antica
    • First-time visitors
    • Historic district
    • Best for food

    The old town inside the bend of the Adige, still laid out on the right-angled streets of the Roman city. The Arena on Piazza Bra, Piazza delle Erbe, Piazza dei Signori, Juliet's House and the shopping street of Via Mazzini are all a short walk apart.

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  • Veronetta
    • Students
    • Local life
    • Viewpoints

    The district across the Adige on the left bank, site of the city's first settlement, with the Roman theatre and the hill of Castel San Pietro above it. Long poor after the Austrians left, it has been restored since the 1970s and is now the main seat of the University of Verona.

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  • San Zeno
    • Historic district
    • Local life
    • Churches

    The old quarter around the great Romanesque basilica of San Zeno, whose façade dominates the large square in front. It is the traditional home of the Papà del Gnoco, the king of Verona's Carnival.

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  • Porta Nuova and the station area
    • Close to public transport
    • Budget stays

    The area around the main railway station south of the centre, about a 15-minute walk from the old town or a short bus ride from the Arena, practical for travellers arriving by train or from the airport bus.

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Things to do

Roman Verona

  • Verona Arenalandmark

    The Roman amphitheatre on Piazza Bra, completed around 30 AD and one of the best preserved anywhere, still used for summer opera and concerts.

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  • Roman theatremuseum

    A 1st-century BC theatre on the left bank, rescued in the 18th century when the houses built over it were bought and demolished.

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  • Ponte Pietralandmark

    The Roman arch bridge over the Adige, completed in 100 BC and the oldest bridge in the city, which once carried the Via Postumia.

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  • Porta Borsarilandmark

    The façade of a 3rd-century gate in the Roman walls, whose inscription of 245 AD names the city Colonia Verona Augusta.

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  • Arco dei Gavilandmark

    A 1st-century arch bearing the name of its architect, demolished by French troops in 1805 and rebuilt in 1932.

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Squares and the della Scala city

  • Piazza delle Erbemarket

    The square on the site of the Roman forum, rebuilt by the della Scala lords with marble from Roman buildings, and still a market square.

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  • Piazza dei Signorilandmark

    An elegant medieval square of palaces and towers, with a monument to Dante.

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  • Torre dei Lambertiviewpoint

    The 84-metre tower begun in 1172, whose bells once called the people to arms and to council.

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  • Scaliger Tombslandmark

    Five Gothic funerary monuments of the della Scala lords in a walled court beside the church of Santa Maria Antica.

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  • Juliet's Houseattraction

    A medieval house in Via Cappello linked with the Cappello family, made a museum in the 1930s, when its courtyard balcony was added for visitors drawn by Romeo and Juliet.

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  • Castelvecchiomuseum

    The red-brick castle of the della Scala lords, with seven towers and M-shaped battlements, now the Castelvecchio Museum.

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  • Castelvecchio Bridgelandmark

    The fortified bridge of the castle, completed in 1356, whose 48.7-metre arch was the largest span in the world when it was built.

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Churches

  • Basilica of San Zenolandmark

    One of the masterpieces of medieval architecture, with bronze door panels, a rose window called the Wheel of Fortune and Mantegna's San Zeno Altarpiece.

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  • Sant'Anastasialandmark

    The great Dominican Gothic church built from 1290 to 1481, home to Pisanello's fresco of St George and the Princess of Trebizond.

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  • Verona Cathedrallandmark

    The Romanesque cathedral consecrated in 1187, built after an earthquake in 1117 destroyed two earlier churches on the site.

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Gardens and hills

  • Giusti Gardenpark

    Renaissance gardens laid out in 1580 behind a 16th-century palace, with terraces, a hedge maze and views over the city; a storm in 2020 badly damaged them.

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  • Castel San Pietroviewpoint

    The hilltop Austrian barracks above the Roman theatre, a favourite viewpoint over the city, reached by the incline lift opened in 2017.

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  • Torricelletrail

    The hills that ring the city to the north, part of its landscape since its earliest settlements.

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Short trips from the city

  • Valpolicellaattraction

    The hilly wine zone north of the Adige, east of Lake Garda, where Valpolicella reds and Amarone are made.

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  • Lake Gardabeach

    The largest lake in Italy and a popular holiday area, west of the city.

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  • Sirmioneattraction

    A lakeside town on the southern shore of Lake Garda, just over the border in Lombardy.

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Seasonal events

  • Arena di Verona Festivalsummer

    Opera in the Roman amphitheatre, first staged in 1913; performances begin at dusk, when spectators on the stone steps light small candles.

  • VinitalyApril

    An international wine fair for professionals, first held in 1967, showing thousands of wines from dozens of countries.

  • Carnival and the Papà del Gnocothe last Friday before Lent

    Verona's Carnival is led by the Papà del Gnoco, a bearded figure with a golden fork holding a potato gnocco, traditionally elected in the San Zeno quarter.

Eat and drink

Long-standing places and food districts in Verona. Hours, ratings and directions come from your maps app, always current.

Verona classics

  • Pastissada de cavalrestaurant

    Braised horse meat, a Veronese speciality; the Veronese are keen eaters of horse meat.

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  • Lesso e pearàrestaurant

    Boiled mixed meats served with pearà, a peppery sauce of breadcrumbs, beef and hen stock and beef marrow.

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  • Osterie of the old townneighborhood

    Wine bars and osterie around Piazza delle Erbe pour Valpolicella, Amarone and Soave from the hills around the city.

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Markets

  • Piazza delle Erbe marketmarket

    The market stalls in the old Roman forum, the heart of the city since antiquity.

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Experience Verona

History

Verona's early history is uncertain, but the territory became Roman around 300 BC, a Roman colony in 89 BC and a municipium in 49 BC, prospering at the crossing of several roads. Its right-angled Roman street grid survives, and the Roman city lies largely intact about six metres below today's streets. The Ostrogoth king Theoderic the Great was said to have built a palace here, the Lombard king Alboin was killed here in 572, and in 774 Adalgisus made his last stand against Charlemagne in the city. An earthquake in 1117 destroyed much of it and set off a great Romanesque rebuilding.

Verona became a free commune in 1135. After the tyranny of Ezzelino III da Romano, the della Scala family took power in the 1260s. Under Cangrande I, who protected Dante, Petrarch and Giotto, the city ruled Treviso, Vicenza and Padua, and Mastino II became one of the richest princes of his time. A league of rivals cut the dynasty down, and in 1387 the last della Scala lord fled the city at midnight. Verona submitted to Venice in 1405.

Plague killed about 33,000 people in 1630–31, over 60 per cent of the population. Napoleon took the city in 1797, and Austrian rule followed, making Verona a fortress of great strategic importance until it joined Italy in 1866. During the Italian Social Republic, Mussolini's son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano was tried at Castelvecchio in a show trial in January 1944; the city was liberated on 26 April 1945. In the Cold War it hosted NATO's SETAF command, and in 2000 UNESCO listed the city for its urban structure and architecture.

Culture & Customs

Opera is Verona's signature. The Arena di Verona Festival has staged opera in the Roman amphitheatre in summer since 1913; performances begin at dusk and spectators on the stone tiers light small candles as darkness falls. The Arena also hosts concerts through the year, and in 2026 it staged the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

Shakespeare set three plays here — Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew and The Two Gentlemen of Verona — though it is unknown whether he ever visited. The city has embraced the connection: Juliet's House, a medieval house of the Cappello family, gained its balcony in the 1930s, and there are also a Tomb of Juliet and a House of Romeo. Verona was also the birthplace of the Renaissance humanist Isotta Nogarola.

Local traditions run deep. The Carnival is led by the Papà del Gnoco, a bearded king with a golden fork and a potato gnocco, traditionally chosen in the San Zeno quarter, and the city developed its own style of bell-ringing in the 18th century. Hellas Verona, Italian champions in 1984–85, is the main football club; the city has twice hosted the road cycling world championships and regularly welcomes the Giro d'Italia. Politically it has long been a conservative, Catholic city, though it elected a left-wing mayor, the former footballer Damiano Tommasi, in 2022.

Daily Life

About 255,000 people lived in the city in 2026 and around 714,000 in its metropolitan area, making Verona the largest city of the Veneto. Immigrants make up about 17 per cent of residents, with Sri Lanka, Romania, Moldova, Albania and Morocco the largest countries of birth.

The economy is diversified, spanning services, food, cars, fashion and industry. Companies based in the city include Banco BPM, Calzedonia, Pastificio Rana and Bauli; the trade fairs, led by Vinitaly, and tourism add a great deal. Porta Nuova, where the Brenner and Milan–Venice railways cross, handles about 25 million passengers a year, one of the busiest stations in Italy.

Daily life centres on the old town's squares and the Adige. Students fill Veronetta, home to the University of Verona, while residents shop along Via Mazzini and Corso Porta Borsari. Summer evenings revolve around the opera and the riverside; winters bring fog to the plain.

Food

Veronese cooking is hearty and meat-based. The Veronese are keen eaters of horse meat: pastissada de caval is braised horse meat, and picula de caval another horse dish. Lesso e pearà pairs bollito misto, boiled mixed meats, with pearà, a peppery sauce of breadcrumbs, beef and hen stock and beef marrow, and bollito is also served with mostarda, fruit preserved in mustard. Bigoli, a thick spaghetti, appear on many menus, and gnocchi star at Carnival.

Pandoro, the tall, eight-pointed sweet bread dusted with vanilla-scented icing sugar, is a product of Verona and is eaten across Italy at Christmas and New Year; the cake makers Bauli are based in the city.

The hills around Verona make some of Italy's best-known wines. Valpolicella, north of the Adige and east of Lake Garda, produces light reds from Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara grapes, the sweet Recioto and Amarone, a strong red made from dried grapes. Soave, made principally around the city, is a dry white based on Garganega. Each April Vinitaly brings wine professionals from around the world to the city, and osterie and wine bars around Piazza delle Erbe serve local wines by the glass.

Planning tools

Budget

Verona costs less than Venice but more than the smaller Veneto towns. Rooms are dearest during the summer opera season and Vinitaly in April, when the city fills up. The compact centre keeps transport costs low, and many of the best sights — the squares, bridges and riverside walks — are free to see from outside.

Daily Budget Midrange
USD 180–340 (mid-range hotel, restaurant dinners, museum tickets, an opera seat)
Daily Budget Shoestring
USD 90–140 (hostel or simple guesthouse, market and bakery food, city buses)

Book rooms and opera tickets early for summer festival nights, and look for lunch menus, which cost far less than dinner.

Best Time to Visit

April to June and September to October bring the most comfortable weather. Summer is hot and humid but brings the opera festival in the Arena. Winters are cool, damp and often foggy, though Carnival and the Christmas season enliven the centre.

Suggested Number of Days

Two days are enough for a first visit to the old town and its churches, a little longer with an evening at the opera. Four or five days allow for the lake shore and the wine hills around the city.

First Visit
2 days
With Surroundings
4–5 days

Transportation

The centre is best on foot. Azienda Trasporti Verona runs the city buses, with frequent services from Porta Nuova station to the Arena; tickets are sold from machines, through an app and in tobacconists. An incline lift climbs from near Ponte Pietra to the Roman theatre museum and Castel San Pietro. A new trolleybus network has been under construction.

Buy bus tickets before boarding where possible; on Sundays and holidays a separate timetable and route numbering apply.

Airport & Station Connections

Verona Villafranca Airport is about 10 km south-west of the city, linked by frequent buses to Porta Nuova railway station. Porta Nuova lies where the Brenner line from Austria meets the Milan–Venice line, with direct trains to Munich, Innsbruck and Zurich and overnight sleepers to Vienna and Munich. The A4 and A22 motorways serve the city.

Walkability

Very good. The old town inside the river bend is compact and largely level, with pedestrian streets linking the Arena, Piazza delle Erbe and the bridges. Porta Nuova station is about a 15-minute walk from the old town; the climb to Castel San Pietro is steep, but the lift helps.

Safety

Italy is generally safe, with low levels of violent crime against visitors. Verona is a calm city; pickpocketing in crowds around the Arena, Juliet's House and Piazza delle Erbe is the main thing to watch for, and winter fog makes driving on the plain hazardous.

Keep bags closed in the busy courtyard of Juliet's House and in opera crowds, and take care on the roads in fog. Check current official travel advice before travelling.

Climate

A humid subtropical climate of the inland plain, slightly tempered by nearby Lake Garda, with hot summers and cool, humid winters. Humidity is high all year, and winter fog, mainly from dusk to late morning, has become less frequent in recent years.

Summer
hot — temperatures occasionally pass 37°C, and thunderstorms are fairly frequent, often with hail
Winter
cool and humid — frosts below 0°C come most often in January and February, and fog forms mainly from dusk until late morning

Local Customs

Verona is a traditional, largely Catholic city with a strong local identity and its own Veronese dialect. Tips are not customary in Italy; restaurants often add a coperto cover charge, and a euro or two is welcome for good service. At the opera, spectators on the stone steps light small candles as darkness falls.

Dress modestly in churches and avoid visiting during services, and keep noise down near homes in the narrow lanes of the old town late at night.

Common Payment Methods

The currency is the euro. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, though small bars and market stalls may prefer cash, and ATMs are easy to find in the centre.