Milan was a bustling modern city, but from the moment we detrained in Verona we felt a difference between these first two Italian cities. It was as if Italy had just gotten older… and more manageable. We snaked into town from the train station (Verona Porto Nuova) along much quieter streets (there were no subways or tour buses), and after we found our lodging, we walked around the town to get our bearings. We found many beautiful old buildings, the remnants of an old Roman Wall and a huge piazza bordered by an ancient Roman coliseum. It was all quite charming and the entire town seemed walkable.

We had previously arranged for only one tour in Verona (a climb up Tower Lamberti). We missed the time for that tour, but we purchased a “Verona card” which gave us access to most of the town’s sites, including the tower, and gave us the freedom to see Verona on our own.

We found a nice dining spot, under an umbrella on Via Roma, and enjoyed a beautiful evening strolling around Piazza Bra and the coliseum. We couldn’t help noticing that giant oriental-style lions and other stage props were surrounding part of the coliseum, and later found out that an opera was being staged that night in the coliseum. We watched as the piazza filled up with spectators who were headed to the opera and thought that this was a pretty cool place after all.

The next day we decided to learn more about Verona, starting with The Arena, Verona’s Roman coliseum. It was built in 30 AD and is still in use. It has a capacity of 30,000 and was on our Verona card, so, after breakfast, we entered The Arena. At that time there were 50 or so tourists walking about inside. Some were probably Christians, but there no live lions that we could see. What we did see was a sea of empty seats and a crew working industriously at building a stage set. We were fascinated by their progress but also by the building itself. The photos (below) will be self-explanatory.

At some point, we realized there would be another opera performance that night and we decided to give opera a try … for the first time. To our amazement, all the premium seats were sold but we did manage to secure a couple of cheap stone seats that did not have full view of the stage. And we started to get excited….

We spent most of the day walking and exploring the narrow streets of Verona, amazed at the number of high-end stores. Everything seemed to go well for us in Verona. In one of the piazza’s we bought some fruit from a street vendor that was some of the freshest fruit we ever had. We tried new streets and lucked upon a little church (not in the guide books) that was a real treasure. The docent spent about an hour with us and we could tell that sharing Santo Lorenzo’s secrets was one of her life’s pleasures.

We found a nice restaurant by the Arco dei Gavi (see photos) and had focaccia for lunch. After, we stopped at Castelvecchio to explore this old castle and the Scaligera Bridge that is attached to it and crosses the fast-moving Adige River.

At some point we realized there were very few cars on Verona’s streets, another reason to fall in love with this town. We walked to Lamberti Tower and got lovely views of the city from a height of 84 meters, made dinner reservation at a Michelin-star restaurant in a hidden alley, and felt appreciative for having spent a very full day in Verona.

As expected, the opera was a spectacle and The Arena provided an incredible venue. We did not understand a word, but with the help of an English/Italian translation on a digital screen (see photo below), we understood the plot, absorbed the excitement of the music and the staging and left with the feeling that “this was great”. Verona definitely scored big!

We left the next morning for Venice, where there would be even fewer cars … but a lot more boats.

VERONA PHOTO GALLERY

Click on any image to expand and begin slideshow

WHAT WE DID NOT SEE

Juliet’s House.