Things to do
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Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore
The best Romanesque church in northern Italy, with bronze door panels cast between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries and a Mantegna altarpiece. The crypt is where Shakespeare had Romeo and Juliet married. It stands west of the centre and the cloister is entered from the nave.
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Piazza delle Erbe
The old Roman forum, still a market square, ringed by frescoed houses and the Mazzanti buildings. The Torre dei Lamberti on its corner has a lift most of the way up. The quieter Piazza dei Signori opens off it through an arch at the northern end.
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Teatro Romano
A first-century BC theatre on the far bank, cut into the hillside and still staging Shakespeare each summer. The archaeological museum above it is in a former monastery. It is reached over the Ponte Pietra from the centre in about ten minutes on foot.
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Verona Arena
A Roman amphitheatre of about 30 AD, smaller than the Colosseum but far more intact, and still in use: the summer opera festival seats around fifteen thousand on the original stone steps. Performances start after dark, and cushions for the stone are hired at the gate.
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Castelvecchio
A fourteenth-century Scaligeri fortress rebuilt as a museum by Carlo Scarpa between 1958 and 1974, and the conversion is as much the reason to come as the collection. Its fortified bridge crosses the Adige. The museum is quiet and the bridge is crossed free at any hour.
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Giardino Giusti
A Renaissance garden of 1580 rising from formal parterres to a wooded cliff, with cypresses Goethe wrote about. The belvedere at the top looks back over the whole city. It lies a few minutes east of the river, is rarely busy, and the climb to the top is short.
