What to do in Verona!

If you’re looking for a city break full of culture, sights, good food and history - Verona is the answer.

Verona is in the northern part of Italy towards the top of the boot, nestled between Lake Garda, The Alps & Venice. With plenty of historic sites to see you could definitely fill four full days in Verona. For our trip we decided to squeeze as much in as we possibly could without burning ourselves out, in the process.

Day 1: Arrive In Verona

We were lucky our flight landed at 9am Verona time so we were at our apartment by 10am! We were staying in a Truly Verona Self Catering Apartment (https://www.trulyverona.com/) and although out place wouldn’t be ready until 2pm they stored our bags for us so we could go off adventuring!

As with any holiday the first day is spent getting the lay of the land, working out where stuff is, roughly; supermarkets, tourist sights, your hotel and things like tourist information.

We’d been awake since 2am so it was basically lunch time for us so off we popped to find coffee and food. Food is not in short supply in Verona, I think, it averaged as every other building was some form of eatery. Top tip - look for Café or snack spot on the sign if you’re looking for lunch type foods rather than a big meal. Restaurants or Pizzerias are more sit down knife and fork food, if you catch my drift.

We stopped at a wee café, had a refuel and then off we went to see the sights!

Verona is built alongside the Adige river and there are multiple bridges running up and down the river. One of them is centuries old and is part of the original wall that surrounded the city. It’s a beautiful old mediaeval bridge and you can climb right up to the top of it and look over the river. Highly recommend you do that, the views are cracker!

We pootled around for a few hours and then decided a nap was the best course of action because we were making gelato in the afternoon!

We did this one via Air BNB (https://www.airbnb.co.uk/experiences/1395097?guests=1&adults=1&s=67&unique_share_id=4738d16a-e8ef-40bd-a3c3-08812267603c) and it was ace!

We made 3 different gelatos and we ate all 3! Our host Cristina even made us proper Affogato… I was in HEAVEN. Highly recommend it if you're in Verona, it’s a fairly cheap experience in comparison to some of the other cooking ones plus it’s ice cream so you can’t go too badly wrong!

Our first evening in Verona we booked a table on the other side of the river (from the arena), it was a highly rated restaurant on google. There are literally hundreds of places to eat in Verona this place was good, but it was a fair old walk!

Verona Day 2:

Now I am a researcher and of course I’d read about 70 blogs on Verona before I got there. The Verona card was the most recommended thing to get while you were visiting (https://www.visitverona.it/en/explore/culture-at-an-affordable-price)

We had plans for our 3rd and 4th day so we decided just to get the 24hour pass, which is a BARGAIN considering you can pay up to 8 euros each to get into some places. We’d nabbed a map and decided to do a “two birds one stone” plan. We had highlighted all the places we definitely wanted to see using our Verona card and then worked out the best walking route for them.

We were a stone's throw away from the Arena so we started there. Now, I’m a history buff and had a thing about the Romans (I think having spent a lot of my life in the midlands and driving up and down the Fosse you kind of have to like them?!) when I was a kid. This arena is IMMENSE like gladiator immense and it’s older than the colosseum so a must see! With our Verona card we skipped the 45 minute queue & the 8 euro entry (each!).

This was me contemplating if the last few steps were actually worth it!

Then we headed off to The Castelvecchio museum. This is right beside the bridge we crossed on the first day, so the building is part of the original fortress that surrounded Verona. Not going lie, we are both into museums but normally for the architecture not the stuff in it. The paintings were amazing and some of the artefacts were cool but the views sold it for me!

One of the best bits of this visit, you get to the top of the building and you can see down the Adige. We’re admiring the view taking pictures and this American lady comes up behind us, in a really loud, really confident way says to her husband “This is a beautiful place to take a picture of me”. I was both creased and like “FUCK YEAH!” this woman knows what she wants. Class.

Now, you can’t come to Verona without seeing a wee bit of Shakespeare … next on our route was Juliet's Balcony. I’m taking full credit for our route because it was cracking and from the Castelvecchio to Juliet’s balcony it took you through the main part of Verona, we found the main square, lots of eateries and a market that was selling cool bits and the usual touristy bits. I refrained but my travel buddy bought lemon socks (an inside joke!), 3 magnets and a mug!

The British are famed for their queuing… Italians and other tourists not so much. Juliet's balcony is a big attraction in Verona and it was busy. The queue to the balcony wasn’t too bad, probably took us 30 - 40 minutes and we were there about midday on a Sunday. (We passed by it at 6pm on Tuesday and it was quiet, closes at 7pm!) It’s a very romantic spot, couple’s were having a good old smooch on the balcony, very sweet! The museum is pretty cool, again the architecture got me and the original features, but most people come for the picture on the balcony.

The other site you can see at Juliet's House is the statue of Juliet. Rumour has it that by touching her left breast you’ll be lucky in love. Remember my queue comments? WELL… The queue for the house was nicely managed. This was a FREE FOR ALL and it wasn’t pretty. Handbags at dawn is an accurate description. It’s also not the biggest space so you feel very pinned in. But we preserved and became very un British and rude to make sure we got our picture.

We’ve now paid for our Verona card in just 3 visits!

By this point in the day, we’re hungry, hot and just about people’d out! We had one more must visit on our map, the Verona Cathedral!

We pootled over and found a lovely wee café to sit and have some lunch in right across from the cathedral!

The cathedral itself was beautiful again we were more interested in the building than anything else. But it had a partial archaeological dig in it, which was cool to see. Plus it just amazes me how people painted the ceilings in these places in like 1600 and something! Spectacular.

After the cathedral we wandered home, we were on 15k steps by this point and it was time for nap!

Remember that local knowledge our Gelato Teacher gave us? Well it was about heading up Castel San Pietro to watch the sunset over the river. It’s one of the highest (if not the highest) points in Verona so the view is spectacular. HOWEVER it is BIG HILL up A LOT of stairs.

After a 15k steps day, my knees were struggling with it (the joys of being a chunk!). It was also VERY busy. It would appear our local titbit had been told to everyone. But it was totally worth the sweaty knees and fear that I might need a ventilator by the time I reached the top of the hill.

It was BEAUTIFUL, to be honest all of Verona is beautiful but this was definitely worth it.

However be prepared to fall out, if you’re either tired or hungry! We were both hungry AND tired so by the time we got to the top I was ready to throw a tantrum!

I’m not much of a drinker anymore, but while I'm away I like to try the local drinks, I’d had an Aperol the night before so thought I’ll have a Negroni. I used to make them with trainees years ago but I remembered them as long drinks.

I ordered it, the waiter looked at me like I had two heads but brought it anyway.

HOLY COW, it was not a long drink it was three double shots of alcohol over ice. THE ROOF OF MY MOUTH WAS TINGLING. If you wanna get drunk, cheaply, in Italy, have two of them and you’d be done.

I finished it by the way, I’m Scottish, one we never leave alcohol and two we're all tight. If I’ve paid for it, I'll finish it.

Verona Day 3:

This is actually a bit of a misnomer because we went to Venice! Now I was a bit dubious about this because I’ve seen what tourism is doing to the place but was reassured that we wouldn’t be doing harm because we were using public transport to get around all day.

There are two train stations in Verona go to Porta Nuova, it’s in a much more central area of town and much easier to get in and out of! We got off at the other one on the way home and it nearly caused an argument.

We bought our tickets via Trenitalia, similar to our TrainLine. We bought fixed tickets for going out and then the flex tickets for coming back. This means when you want to come home, you scan your ticket in Venice and just amend the ticket for free to get on another train. If you don’t pay for the flex it will cost you to change it.

FYI, it is law to wear face masks on public transport in Italy - make sure you’ve got one!

It takes about 1.5 hours to get to Venice but the journey is pleasant enough and the trains have two floors, we sat at the top and the views were cracker. Once you get to Venice it’s a bit overwhelming 1. Because it’s busy 2. You’re surrounded by water 3. It’s STUNNING.

I cannot tell you how STUNNING Venice is, like breathtakingly beautiful.

We’d read that you should take a water bus round the island, now we actually got on the wrong one. It’s a bit like the London Tube, you’ve got St Marcs (I think it was called?) going one way and then the other. We ended up going for the scenic route, which took about 40 minutes but this is the route I’d recommend. You get to see lots of the wee islands and you get to go on the river for longer - honestly *chefs kiss*. Once you’re off you can then walk around and actually walk back to the train station.

We wandered around probably 1/5th of Venice in total. It’s all wee streets with high buildings and bridges, shops and restaurants tucked into the bottom of buildings.

There was one square that I nearly cried at, it was so stunning. Overwhelmingly beautiful.

We of course did a gondola ride. Do you know how much a gondolier makes?! Google it I dare you. I wouldn’t normally pay 80 euros for something but this was a once in a lifetime experience and it was worth it. They’re very knowledgeable and do have some fun facts for you on the trip.

I’m not the best on wee boats, like canoes, kayaks etc but I managed it, even if I did grip onto the thing for dear life! If you’re like me you’ve just got to trust the gondolier (he’s done over 400 hours of training!) and won’t drop you in the canal!

Now, Venice was beautiful, and totally worth the journey, but it was also tiring. We were there for about 5 hours and we were cream crackered. So just be prepared to need some time apart when you get back to Verona to decompress. It’s very busy and it’s a long day. BUT WORTH IT! Go, go now!

Verona day 4:

Now if you’ve remembered way back to the beginning of this I said Verona is nestled between Lake Garda & Venice… That’s right day 4 we went to Lake Garda!

We booked this trip Via Viatour it was similar to this one (https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Lake-Garda/4-Hour-Afternoon-Sightseeing-Cruise-of-Lake-Garda/d27338-38773P6). We were picked up at 9am by our guide and bussed to Lake Garda. He was FULL of information, and loved being asked questions. His English was impeccable and even had a bit of banter with us. We then arrived and did a speed boat tour of the lake. My god I felt like a bond girl (well more like Melissa McCarthy in Spy) but you get the gist. Once our tour was over we got some free time to wander round the old town and take pictures. Again BEAUTIFUL. The Lake Garda trip was only 4 hours so by 2pm we were back in Verona to finish off our trip nicely.

Our last day consisted of good food, a nice walk around our favourite sites and a good nights sleep because we were flying back really early again!

I could continue to rattle on about Verona for ages but the biggest thing you should take from this is to go. Honestly it is one of the most beautiful places I think I’ve ever been, it’s well connected so you can travel out of the area and really make the most of your trip.