Exploring Verona in a day

One of the most romantic cities I have ever visited in Italy was Verona. The city looks like it has frozen during the Middle Ages and hasn’t changed ever since. It is a very well-preserved city, which makes you fall deeply in love with it. This is no surprise since William Shakespeare wrote two of his plays about citizens of Verona. His most famous plays are Romeo and Juliet and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, which are attracting many tourists, due to the well-preserved artefacts and buildings related to these characters.

The city was inhabited since the fifth century by various tribes until it was added to the Roman Empire around the first century. After that, it was overtaken by the Visigoths and later by other Northern tribes. Eventually, it became part of the Italian Kingdom in the Middle Ages and remained there until these days.

Verona is a very colourful city with lots of green areas, nice river coasts and lots of bridges set around the city so that people can travel easier from one side to another. In addition to that, its landmarks are incredibly well-preserved and they almost seem untouched by the time. That is why Verona had been declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

I went to Verona with a friend of mine as a part of our trip to the North part of Italy. We took the plane to Milano Bergamo airport and from there we went to the train station. From the train station, we bought tickets for Verona, which cost us ten euros per person. It took us an hour and a half to get to Verona and as per our plan, we wanted to visit the House of Juliet. However, when we took off the train we were completely stunned by the mesmerizing beauty of this city of love. All of its buildings were painted in such warm colours, there were beautiful flowers on the terraces of the buildings. The birds were chirping and we could hear the quiet waves of the river splashing on the rocks of the bridges.

Verona looked like a miracle city to me. The people there were riding bikes instead of driving cars, they were all smiley, some of them were dancing on the streets and singing. It was an absolutely unbelievable experience.

Things to visit in Verona

That is why we started our trip to Verona, as soon as we arrived. We have planned to visit the most famous landmarks in the city for that day and almost succeeded in doing so. Below I will share with you the places we have a visit and useful tips on how and when to visit them.

Juliet’s House in Verona

We started our trip by visiting the most famous house of Juliet, which was in the centre of the city of Verona. Thankfully, it was early in the morning, so there we not many people and we could sneak inside its courtyard from where we could see its famous balcony. As per the story goes, Romeo was coming at this place and was screaming the name of his beloved Juliet until she would come outside.

Me and my friend decided to go inside of the museum house of Juliet and paid the 4.50 euros admission fee for students. The museum had a couple of floors full of rooms with Renaissance costumes. There was also a bedroom, a dining room and on the last floor was the famous balcony of Juliet. Going outside on the terrace, you can really feel the love spreading around. There we could see pretty much every spot in the courtyard along with the shop, the statue of Juliet and the wall of Juliet, which was full of the names of millions of couples.

Once we were done with exploring the house we went outside and next to the entrance of the museum was the statue of Juliet. As per the legend, if you would like to be lucky in love, you will have to touch its right breast and wish for love.

Finally, we went to the shop from which we bought souvenirs resembling the statue of Juliet and went on to Juliet’s Love Wall, where we wrote our names, so we can memorialize this day.

Romeo's House in Verona

Walking a bit further we found the House of Romeo in Verona at Via Arche Scaligere. It was a quite big house built in the typical Medieval architectural style. However, it was not so well-preserved and looked a bit damaged. As per the story, Romeo there with his family the Montecchi, which was a very rich family back in the days. However, they were rivals to the Capuletti family, which Juliet was part of and that is why the love of Romeo and Juliet was so tragic.

Torre dei Lamberti and Piazza delle Erbe

After that, we went to the Torre dei Lamberti, which was the highest building in the city of Verona. As per the calculations, the tower was more than eighty meters high. It was built around the eleventh century in entirely Romanesque architectural style. To enter the Torre dei Lamberti the ticket price was five euros for students and after sweating a lot on the spiral staircase we went to its top where we saw the whole city. The view from the tower was simply breathtaking. The roofs of the houses were all red and the buildings were yellowish, which created a very summerish feeling.

Then, we went down to Piazza delle Erbe, which is the main square of Verona. In its beginning, was the building of the Town Hall of Verona and Torre dei Lamberti. At the time we visited the square it was pretty much occupied with lots of stands where fruits and vegetables were sold. However, we continued straight on it next to its famous fountain, which was called Madonna Verona. It was a nice little fountain with a Roman sculpture dating back to the fourth century. At the end of the main square, there were two huge columns made out of white marble and had statues on their tops.

Castel Saint Pietro

After that, we reached the coast of the river Adige and crossed the Pietra bridge, which was a very old bridge built in the first century. However, it was destroyed during the Second World War but was restored after that. After crossing the bridge, we headed to the right and crossed the street, so we can walk on the side of the Castle.

Then, we had to start going up the stairs that were going the hill and the ancient Roman Theatre, which was built around the first century before the birth of Christ. It was quite fascinating to look at it from above. It was very well preserved and most of its columns have survived and been sort of glued to the new building on the hill.

However, we were going up the stairs, which at some point was quite hard, but we kept on going because as higher as we were going, the more of the city we were seeing and it was beautiful. Eventually, we ended on top of the hill, where we saw the barracks built by the Austrians at the end of the nineteenth century. From there we could sit on the rocky fence and overlook the city in front of us. We stayed there for a while and then decided to eat something, so we went to the nearest restaurant. We went to Re Teodorico, where we ordered Focaccia with prosciutto and pesto, which was absolutely delicious. From the restaurant we had an incredible view over the city, the Torre dei Lamberti and the Santuario della Nostra Signora di Lourdes in the distance, which was one of the famous churches in Verona.

Arena di Verona

After we visited the Castle of Saint Pietro we went back to the center of Verona and straight to the Arena of Verona. The amphitheatre of Verona is set exactly in the city center and covers a huge part of it, so it is not easy to be missed by the visitors of the city. In order to enter, we had to pay an admission fee, which was 7.50 euros for students. After we paid the cashier gave us brochures with lots of information about the amphitheatre and we entered.

Like most of the amphitheatres, the Arena of Verona was full of tunnels and lots of staircases leading to the seats for the visitors. Fun fact is that the amphitheatre of Verona was built around the first century and could gather up to thirty-thousand people. It was used mainly for gladiator fights with animals and for chariot races. As per the story, many Roman Emperors were visiting the amphitheatre, as it was famous for its incredibly intense performances.

Eventually, we sat on top of the amphitheatre and we could not see the arena, because it was covered by a recently made stage for an upcoming event. However, the feeling to sit at the top seats in a Roman amphitheatre was simply incredible.

After that, we went to one of the restaurants near the amphitheatre of Verona and got some limoncello, which is a very nice alcoholic drink made out of lemons. However, you have to be careful, as it is quite strong, so drink it carefully. While we were there we saw the famous Portoni della Bra, which was the main gate to the old city back in the days. In the middle of the gate, there was a huge clock between the two arches.

The tomb of Juliet

Finally, we headed to the last place we wanted to visit, which was a bit further from the city center. As per the story, it is believed that this was the place where the beautiful Juliet was buried. Thus, since we already had bought tickets for the House of Juliet, we could also enter the Tomb of Juliet, as it was also included in the ticket price.

Inside of the landmark, there was a long narrow pathway covered in lots of flowers, which have created something like a fence of flowers. It was leading us to a courtyard and the tomb of Juliet, which was put into a cave-like room. We went downstairs and did not expect to see that the tomb of Juliet, was so simple and made out of stone.

Despite that, the story of her love for Romeo was unbelievable. She loved him so much, that when her family made her marry another man, she decided to drink a potion, which will put her to sleep for quite a while. However, her family thought she had died and when Romeo learned that he bought a potion full of poison from a merchant, which he planned to drink. Then, when he went to her bed to see her for the last time, her future husband appeared and Romeo killed him and then drank the poison. In the meantime, Juliet woke up and saw her beloved one dying of the poison and stabbed herself, so she does not live without the love of her life.

The story of this undying love is known by pretty much all of the people in the world and that is why many of them come here to visit Verona. Honestly, before visiting Verona I was not aware of most of the stories related to it but instead learned them while walking around the city. It was quite nice to learn something new and see lots of incredible buildings.

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