Budget · 3-hour walk · Verona
Roman and Scaliger Verona in three hours
The Roman amphitheatre, Juliet's courtyard, the two old squares, the Scaliger tombs and the Roman bridge.
Verona's old town sits inside a loop of the Adige, and its Roman street grid still runs under the medieval one. This route starts at the amphitheatre on Piazza Bra, follows Via Mazzini to the market square that was the Roman forum, takes in the squares and tombs of the Della Scala lords who ruled the city in the 13th and 14th centuries, and ends on the Roman bridge across the river. Start at the Arena's morning opening, before the coach groups.
The route, stop by stop
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Arena di Verona
The Roman amphitheatre, built in the first century AD, lost most of its outer ring in the earthquake of 1117; the four arches of the Ala are what is left of it. It has been an open-air opera house every summer since Aida in 1913.
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Casa di Giulietta
A medieval house of the Dal Cappello family, whose name the city linked with Shakespeare's Capulets; the balcony was added in the 1930s. The courtyard is now entered only on a booked ticket, through the Teatro Nuovo in Piazzetta Navona.
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Piazza delle Erbe
The square on the site of the Roman forum, still a market. The fountain's statue, the Madonna Verona, is a Roman figure set up here by the Scaliger lord Cansignorio in 1368.
15 min here Walk here → -
Torre dei Lamberti
The 84-metre tower over the square, begun in 1172 and raised in the 15th century. A lift goes most of the way; the climb on foot is 368 steps.
25 min here Walk here → -
Piazza dei Signori
The square of the Scaliger government, with Ugo Zannoni's statue of Dante (1865) in the middle. Dante spent part of his exile here as the guest of Cangrande della Scala.
10 min here Walk here → -
Arche Scaligere
The Gothic tombs of the Della Scala family behind a wrought-iron fence. Cangrande's tomb stands above the door of Santa Maria Antica; the equestrian statue on top is a copy, and the original is in Castelvecchio.
10 min here Walk here → -
Basilica di Santa Anastasia
Verona's largest Gothic church, built by the Dominicans. Look for Pisanello's fresco of St George and the Princess over the Pellegrini chapel arch, and the two hunchbacks holding up the holy-water stoups.
20 min here Walk here → -
Ponte Pietra
The Roman bridge across the Adige, blown up by retreating German troops in 1945. It was rebuilt in the 1950s with the original stones, raised from the river.
10 min here Walk here →
More walks in Verona
More in Verona
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