MacsTravel Blog

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene…

(From the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet)

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Before we get to “fair Verona” you have to get into “fair Verona”, which involves an inordinate number of multi laned roundabouts. We were staying in the historic Castelvecchio Apartments in the Palazzo Canosso, which is a building dating from the 1500’s, and which sit right next to the Castelvecchio (old castle) complex on the banks of the Adige river. The castle dates from the 1300’s.

Anna, the woman who owns and manages the apartment, had sent us strict instructions about the timing and location of our meeting, concerned that we might accidentally drive off the one road we were allowed to drive on without incurring huge fines for being in the restricted driving zone in the historic centre.

We successfully met Anna and she waved our car in through a series of increasingly narrow gates, alleys and doors before lodging the car in a tiny basement cellar where it would stay until we left.

The next trick was getting our things to our third floor apartment. Someone had installed a motorized vertical coffin masquerading as an elevator in this 600 year old building, so Anna wedged Robin in with the bulk of our luggage and told her to press the button continuously until the elevator came to a stop. Then Anna proceeded to slowly lead me up a series of staircases, pointing out the room where important guests like Napoleon, Tsar Alexander I of Russia and the Austrian Emperor Franz Ferdinand once stayed (not concurrently I’m assuming). I enquired as to whether we should hurry to help Robin with the bags and she said, “Not to worry: the elevator is very slow- it is much faster to walk.”

Sure enough, after a few more stops on the European Despots tour of Verona, Anna and I arrived at the top floor elevator stop to greet a sweating Robin as she emerged from the coffin (I mean elevator) intact.

Anna steered us into a very nice little apartment that was well appointed and featured charming views to the Castelvecchio, the Scaliger Bridge and the Roman Arco dei Gavi (1st century AD). This location turned out to be perfect for our Verona visit and we would highly recommend it.

We headed out to wander around after a series of thunderstorms drenched the city.

Verona is one of those places that seems beautiful no matter the weather, but we were blessed with great weather over the next couple of days.

A few highlights!

Piazza delle Erbe

This is a large and beautiful square in the centre of the old city. It hosts a bustling market, storefronts, and restaurant patios. You can stand in any given spot in this piazza and turn in a circle and be struck by the beauty of the frescoes, statuary and architecture and by the vibrancy of the square itself.

At the north west end of the piazza is a bronze statue of the Veronese poet Roberto Barbarani: locals rub the dove at the poet’s feet for good luck.

Next to Piazza delle Erbe is Piazza delle Ragione with the Lamberti tower. A famous whale rib hangs in the Arch della Costa which connects the two piazzas.

And around the corner are the ornate and gruesome Scaliger Tombs.

The Piazza Duomo

The Duomo, and its tower in particular, can be seen from seemingly anywhere but are surprisingly tricky to track down. When compared to the vast spaces of some of the other piazzas in Verona, Piazza Duomo seems particularly cramped, but much of that is due to the vast bulk of the cathedral complex.

While the cathedral and tower are impressive up close, they are better appreciated from afar, which brings us to…

The Ponte Pietra

This ancient Roman bridge spans the Adige River and provides wonderful views of the old centre and riverbank. On the day we were there a group of high school students were engaging in a rather underwhelming white water rafting trip. They were having a great time though!

Still, the views are even better from…

Castel San Pietro

This incredible lookout is best accessed by an accessible and inexpensive funicular, which, predictably, was not in service on the day we decided to visit this viewpoint. So up the stairs we went. The castle itself is rather unremarkable; rather, you make the journey to see the ruins of the Roman Theatre (undergoing a long overdue freshening up at the moment) and to see the view across the river back to the city centre, which is spectacular.

There is a restaurant with a lovely terrace where you can enjoy the view. So we did.

Piazza San Zeno

This out of the way piazza was a little sleepy when we visited, but it features the lovely gothic Church of Saint Zeno. A nice walk and lots of benches and patios to while away some time.

Piazza Bra and The Arena

Our favourite area was probably Piazza Bra and the arena. This was about a five minute walk from our apartment and not only contained a lovely little park adorned by statues, fountains and benches, a series of patios where you can enjoy the view, some important civic buildings and historical arches, but also the most significant surviving arena outside of Rome’s Colosseum.

The arena is a magnificent building and hosts a series of concerts throughout the summer, mainly opera but pop acts as well. We hung out in the piazza one evening hoping to enjoy the music of Italian artist Ricardo Cocciante but it seems that we were impervious to his charms.

However, if we ever return to Verona, and we hope to do so, we would make attending a concert in the Arena a priority.

Verona was buzzing while we were there and there were certainly a lot of tourists. However most of the busyness actually came from the dozens and dozens of Italian school groups we saw as well as the numerous youth musical ensembles who were clearly competing in a city wide music competion. It was refreshing and energizing to see so many young people and their teachers engaging in these incredible cultural opportunities.

Back to Shakespeare. As you know Verona is the setting of Romeo and Juliet and the Veronese tourist industry has taken full advantage of this connection. By far the longest lines in town were to see Juliet’s “house” and “balcony”. While there is a historical connection here to the Capulet family, it’s a pretty tenuous one so we passed on the experience.

No regrets. There was lots to occupy our time.