Our favorite corner of Veneto wasn't Piazza San Marco in Venice, the quaint and colorful Burano or Padova's Prato della Valle. It was a little-known terrace by the name of Piazzale Castel San Pietro, situated on a steep hillside overlooking the historic city of Verona across River Adige.
When we showed our friends these photos someone mistook this for Florence, and understandably so if you compare them with the classic postcard view of Florence taken from Piazzale Michelangelo. That's how exceptionally beautiful Verona is as a city and, sadly, how underappreciated it is as a tourist destination in the shadow of heavyweights such as nearby Venice.
For us Verona was the perfect stop in Northeastern Italy, halfway between our longer stays in Venice and the Dolomites and well-connected by trains to Vicenza and Padova for day-trips. We would arrive from our day-trip in Padova, enjoy the city for two nights, depart on a day-trip to Vicenza before heading north into the Alps.
Two nights in town barely scratched the surface of an ancient city packed with everything from Roman ruins to medieval edifices to a Renaissance castle, not to mention its Shakespearean connections. By the end of our stay we joked about how Verona seems to be blessed with a medley of Italy's most iconic sights, combining the panoramic view of Florence with the grandeur of a Roman coliseum.
On the first night we took an after-dinner stroll to laid-back Piazza delle Erbe, a former Roman forum now surrounded by rows of Baroque palazzi from the 1600's as well as two medieval towers. Apparently the Madonna statue in the fountain also dates from late antiquity when Verona was a municipium of the Roman Empire.
But the best-known Roman monument, in fact the undisputed symbol of Verona, is a gigantic 1st century Roman amphitheatre built to seat 30,000 spectators for gladiator shows. After 2000 years the Arena still serves as the largest Roman amphitheatre in Italy to host regular performances such as major rock concerts and a summer opera season. There are only two larger Roman arenas in Italy -- Rome's Coliseum and Capua's amphitheatre -- both of which lay in ruins.
On this day the Arena was being prepped for the annual Festival Show, a free concert featuring a long list of Italian pop stars headlined by Nek this year. Even though the modern seating has been reduced to about half of the original capacity, the noise of screaming teenagers could still be heard outside our hotel until almost midnight.
Almost as famous as the Arena is a 2000-year-old stone bridge spanning over a sharp bend of the River Adige. The Roman engineering survived intact until it was blown up by the retreating Nazis near the end of WWII, but was rebuilt with the original material after the war.
Looming on the opposite shore is yet another 2000-year-old Roman theatre, known simply as Teatro Romano to the locals and utilized mainly for theatre and the ballet season, leaving larger performances such as opera and symphony to the Arena. Instead of being shielded behind glass displays in museums, Verona's Roman heritage still remains an integral part of daily life.
From the top of Teatro Romano one can admire the skyline of the historic centre, made up of a wide assortment of Baroque buildings as well as a few recognizable landmarks from the Middle Ages, all harmonized through the matching red roof tiles that seem to be prevalent everywhere in Northern Italy.
Among the most recognizable medieval architecture are the city's numerous basilicas and churches, from the graceful San Zeno to the Romanesque San Lorenzo to the pictured Gothic Chiesa of Sant'Anastasia. This was possibly the only Italian city on our journey where the Duomo, another Romanesque building from the 12th Century, had to take a backseat in terms of popularity among visitors.
Soaring 80m over Piazza delle Erbe right at the centre of town, the medieval skyscraper of Torre dei Lamberti was my favorite lookout aside from Piazzale Castel San Pietro, due partially to the 360 degree panorama and partially to the modern convenience of an elevator.
To the north stands the impressive Duomo and its unfinished 16th Century clock tower. Further across the river, the conical roof of Santuario Madonna di Lourdes occupies the local hilltop for a commanding position above the city.
On the eastern horizon is the mighty ring of medieval city walls and Venetian ramparts that had safeguarded Verona from its regional archenemies until modern times. Much of this defensive structure, as well as small sections of the ancient Roman walls, still stands. Closer to the tower is the quirky but immensely popular balcony of Juliet, which we visited only because the entrance fee was already included in our VeronaCard.
The decadence of an afternoon nap was one of our main reasons for staying within the historic centre, at a tiny operation known as Romeo Design Rooms. Our room was spacious, well-equipped and contemporary-looking, so long as you ignore the 2000-year-old Roman city wall in the courtyard.
Half a block from our hotel was the Roman Arena and the lively Piazza Bra, arguably Verona's epicentre for shoppers and most convenient for catching buses to the train station. The local version of a SPAR supermarket was about 6 minutes walk away in the direction of Castelvecchio, and most importantly, a small bus stop 3 minutes walk away on Stradone Maffei would take us to our favorite viewpoint ...
The romance of Piazzale Castel San Pietro at sunset. Unless you have your own car or plan to arrive by tour bus, the only access is a mildly strenuous 10 minute hike on a footpath on the north side of Teatro Romano. But it's entirely worthwhile -- so worthwhile that we actually hiked up twice, once in the morning, and once at sunset.
Here's the historic urban landscape of Verona across River Adige when we arrived around 10:30 in the morning ...
... and the same panorama at dusk. It is such scenery that conjures impressions of Florence from the southern hillside across River Arno. And to be honest, Verona from this viewpoint is no less spectacular than its famous Tuscan cousin.
A westerly view in the direction of Sant'Anastasia's campanile at daytime ...
... and the same vista in the romance of the night. These were two enjoyable days that we spent in this gorgeous small city, a slightly underrated destination given its convenient location at the crossroads of Northern Italy. And better yet, we had the best meal of our 23-day journey here in Verona, which will be reviewed in the upcoming article ...
