Verona City Guide

Arena, squares & Castel San Pietro

From Piazza Brà with its pink marble Liston to the Roman Arena, on to the balcony of Casa di Giulietta and out onto Piazza delle Erbe. Up the Torre dei Lamberti, through the archway to quiet Piazza dei Signori, across Ponte Pietra to the Castel San Pietro viewpoint and back to Castelvecchio castle on the Adige.

1. Piazza Brà – Verona's largest square is the natural starting point: the Arena on one side, on the other the Liston, a broad pavement of pink Verona marble lined with cafés. This is where the city takes its evening stroll. You come in through the Portoni della Brà, the archway with the clock, and take in the whole square at once. From Porta Nuova station it is about 15 minutes on foot, or a few minutes by bus.
2. Arena di Verona – The Roman amphitheatre has stood in the middle of town since about AD 30 and is better preserved than the Colosseum - and, more to the point, it is still in use. Inside you simply sit down on the ancient stone steps and let the scale sink in: around 30,000 people once fitted in here. Buy your ticket in advance or you will be queueing. In summer the opera festival takes over and parts of the Arena are closed by day while the stage is built.
3. Casa di Giulietta – The most famous balcony in the world - and, to be honest, a 20th-century invention, added later so the Shakespeare story would have an address. In summer the courtyard is packed tight, plastered with notes, padlocks and raised phones. The courtyard itself is free; only the museum inside the house costs. If you want the shot without strangers' heads, take it from the museum shop window.
4. Piazza delle Erbe – The old market square sits exactly on the Roman forum and is still the city's living room. Around it stand painted façades, medieval towers and the fountain topped by the Madonna Verona, a figure that began life as a Roman statue. The stalls mostly sell souvenirs these days, but the ensemble around them is still magnificent. Stand at the north end and you get the whole row of houses with the fountain in front.
5. Torre dei Lamberti – At 84 metres this is the city's tallest tower; a lift takes you almost to the top and you climb the last stretch on steps. From the platform you see the whole old town, the bend of the Adige and the hills behind - and straight down onto Piazza delle Erbe. The lift costs one euro extra and is not covered by the Verona Card. Half an hour here buys you the best overview Verona has.
6. Piazza dei Signori – Just behind Piazza delle Erbe everything falls quiet: an elegant square framed by arcades, with Dante's statue in the middle. You enter through the Arco della Costa, where a whale rib has hung for centuries - nobody quite knows why. Around it stand the Palazzo della Ragione, the Renaissance Loggia del Consiglio and the palaces of the Scaligeri. A good place to sit down for a moment before moving on.
7. Arche Scaligere – In a lane between Piazza dei Signori and Santa Maria Antica stand the Gothic tombs of the Scaligeri, Verona's ruling family - sarcophagi on tall columns crowned with equestrian statues, all behind a wrought-iron screen bearing the family's ladder crest. You see the whole thing from outside, for free. Shoot through the ironwork: the pattern gives the picture a frame.
8. Ponte Pietra – The Roman arched bridge over the Adige is the city's oldest. It was blown up in 1945; afterwards the Veronese fished the original stones out of the river and put them back piece by piece. The pale marble of the ancient arches and the red brick of the later ones still show what was built when. From the north bank you get the bridge with the cypresses on the slope behind it.
9. Castel San Pietro – Verona's viewing balcony sits on the hill above Ponte Pietra, exactly where the Romans and later the Scaligeri built. You get up by the long staircase or on the little funicular that starts by the bridge and takes two minutes. From the terrace you see the whole bend of the Adige with Ponte Pietra and the old town below, and there is a café up there. Loveliest in the late afternoon, when the light hits the houses head-on.
10. Castelvecchio – The 14th-century brick castle of the Scaligeri now houses the city's most important museum, with medieval sculpture and Venetian painting. The conversion itself is just as worth seeing: in the 1960s Carlo Scarpa turned the building into one of modernism's most famous museum designs, using concrete, steel and precisely placed sightlines onto the old walls. Closed Mondays. The battlemented bridge in front, the Ponte Scaligero, is free to walk and the loveliest way to end the day.