Day-trip to Verona

Verona was one of the cities that was at the top of my list of places to go for this semester. So many friends of mine from university were going there and telling me about how beautiful it is, so I wanted to go and see it for myself. This city really did not disappoint me, it is so beautiful. I think it is now one of my top 3 favorite cities of Italy.

We went there by bus (as per usual) and left Milan at 7.30 in the morning. It’s a two-and-a-half-hour bus ride to get there, so we arrived in Verona at about 10 am. We walked a little to get to the town center: you can’t miss it, that’s where the huge, 2 000-year-old arena is located. I remembered this view from a day when I went to Verona when I was younger, but I was still impressed by the beauty of this place this time again. The town center has beautiful and colorful houses all around which are really cute and kind of look like doll houses, as well as a little park where we had a picnic for lunch. The whole area is forbidden to cars which is really nice because you can just walk around without having to worry about cars and without any noise, so you can just really focus on the view.

As we first arrived there "early" (touristly speaking) in the morning, the square was kind of empty, and we spent a little of time there enjoying the view of the arena and the quietness. Then we started walking in the surrounding streets, which are gorgeous with the colored houses and balconies full of plants. We then walked towards more touristy spots, starting with the Casa di Romeo and the Casa di Giulietta, the famous characters whose story was told by Shakespeare.

The Casa di Romeo is not open to public access (at least it was not the day we went). There is only a sign in front of the entrance that says that Romeo used to live here. Probably the place is now owned by people who want to keep it private.

The Casa di Giulietta is open to public and I have to say that I was not expecting this. I had read before going there that it was a very touristy spot, but I was still quite disappointed. There are tags and papers all over the walls, made by people who wrote their names on it. I didn’t really like the idea of tagging all over a quite historical and cultural building, and neither do I like how it looks now. There are also about 3 shops that give access the small courtyard in front of the house and I think this is a very commercial idea: they are like surrounding the place and it feels like they want to force you to buy something. Maybe the museum has more history and interesting stories. The only thing that I found that was nice was the balcony over the courtyard, thanks to which you can have a better idea of the characters and the story. The access to the courtyard is free, but you have to pay if you want to get inside the museum. I think the Casa di Romeo and the Casa di Giulietta are something to see if you go to Verona because of the popular aspect, but do not expect too much of it!

After this, we walked towards the Castello San Pietro, from which I had seen before we would get a view all over the city. On our way there we passed by several churches and the Duomo. We tried to get inside to see more, but we had to pay to get in all of them, which I thought once again was very touristy and commercial from them… We walked straight to the castle and on our way there we had this beautiful view of it from the other side of the river:

The water had a really pretty blue/green color and this view was one of my favorite of the day.

It’s possible to access the castle with a funicular railway, but we chose to take the stairs. I think that was a good idea because there were some viewing points on the way up (thanks to them you can also take breaks while climbing up if it ever gets a little too hard) which you can probably not enjoy so much if you use the funicular railway. Plus, by using the stairs, you don't have to pay, which also counts in the decision.

Once we arrived up there, the view was truly amazing. I had seen many beautiful pictures of it before but seeing it for myself was even better.

We didn’t even try to get inside the castle, I don’t know if it was open for visits. We spent a little of time there just admiring the view. Then we went back down and back to the park near the arena to have lunch.

The arena opened for visits at 13.30, so we were ready in the line at this time. The full price ticket to get inside is €10, but if you show your student or Erasmus card you can have a discount and pay only €7,50 to get inside. Do not forget it! (Speaking of tips, I also saw that you could buy a “Verona card” that costs €22 and is active for 24 hours, and gives you access to museums, churches and major touristic sites for free. This can be worth it if you plan to stay there for one or two days I think!). I was expecting more people to come and visit the arena, but at 13.30 it was really quite empty. There were more people when we left though, so I think it's better to go there at the opening hour to have fewer people in the arena.

Getting inside the arena was amazing. You can feel the history that there is in this site, it’s almost like you can see the gladiators fighting in the middle. The arena is really well-preserved, you can climb on top of all the stairs and have a view over the city, or even go under the rows of seats that go all around the arena. As there are many shows and concerts taking place in the arena nowadays, there might be some modern material inside, but good thing for us there wasn’t any when we visited it.

We spent about an hour and a half inside the arena to really take our time to enjoy it. We took so many pictures inside. After this, we walked towards Castel Vecchio, which is another castle of the city. This one has a museum (for which you have to pay if you want to get inside) and also a very pretty bridge that offers a nice view over the river.

This was the last site we visited this day. Since we had quite a lot of time before going back to our bus, we walked some more in random streets (because trust me they are gorgeous). Then we went back to the central square before going to the bus station to have one last look at the arena.

This day in Verona was really amazing. The city is truly wonderful so if you are somewhere near of if you do an Erasmus in Italy, you definitely need to go there! My advice would be to not expect too much from some tourist points but more enjoy the city as it is.

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