Verona

Aerobus (line 199) from VRN to Porta Nuova station(15 minutes)

Departs from directly outside arrivals every 20 minutes, ~€8, buy from the machine or onboard. A taxi is ~€25-30 and no faster. From Porta Nuova it is a flat 20-minute walk up Corso Porta Nuova to Piazza Brà, or bus 11/12/13 for ~€1.50 from a tabaccheria.

Hotel check-in in the centro storico(45 minutes)

Anywhere inside the Adige bend works. Hotel Milano & Spa has a rooftop terrace looking straight into the Arena's upper arches; Hotel Accademia and Palazzo Victoria sit on Via Mazzini. If you drove, give reception your plate number now so they can register it against the ZTL — this only works before you enter, not after.

The Liston walk around Piazza Brà(45 minutes)

The wide pink limestone pavement on the west side of the square is the Liston, laid in the 1770s, and the evening passeggiata still runs along it. The stone is Rosso Ammonitico from the Lessinia hills above town — look down and you will find ammonite fossils underfoot. Circle the Arena's exterior; the surviving four-arch fragment on the north side, the 'Ala', is all that is left of the original outer ring.

Aperitivo at Osteria del Bugiardo(1 hour)

Corso Porta Borsari 17a, the Buglioni estate's own bar. A glass of Valpolicella Ripasso is ~€5 and comes with a bowl of something salty. Standing at the bar costs less than sitting, which is true almost everywhere in Italy.

Dinner at Osteria Sottoriva(1.5 hours)

Via Sottoriva 9a, under the last surviving medieval porticoes in Verona. Order the bigoli con l'anatra — thick bronze-drawn wheat pasta in duck ragù, ~€12 — and a half-litre of house Valpolicella. No reservation needed if you arrive by 7:30PM; after 8PM you will queue.

Gelato at Gelateria Savoia(20 minutes)

Via Roma 1b, right off Piazza Brà, going since 1939. Two scoops ~€3.50. The pistachio is the benchmark; skip anything coloured brighter than food should be.

Verona Arena at opening(1.5 hours)

Piazza Brà, entry ~€12, doors at 9AM (Mondays it opens at 1:30PM). Built in the 1st century AD and the third largest amphitheatre in Italy. Climb to the top row of the cavea for the view down into the bowl, then walk the outer ambulatory where the stone is grooved by two millennia of feet. Critical timing note: during the opera festival (mid-June to early September) the Arena shuts to sightseers around 3:30PM on performance days for the stage set, so morning is not optional.

Coffee at Caffè Borsari(20 minutes)

Corso Porta Borsari 15d — a bar roughly the size of a wardrobe, every surface buried in ceramics and hanging cups. Espresso €1.20 standing. Two doors up is Porta Borsari itself, a 1st-century AD Roman city gate still standing at full height in the middle of a shopping street, free and permanently ignored by everyone walking past it.

Piazza delle Erbe(45 minutes)

The Roman forum, still the market square 2,000 years later. The stalls sell souvenirs now — the frescoed facades are the reason to be here. The Madonna Verona fountain dates from 1368 but the statue in it is Roman, recycled by the Scaligeri. Under the Arco della Costa hangs a whale rib; nobody has settled why. Look up at Casa Mazzanti's 16th-century frescoes — Verona was once entirely painted like this, hence 'urbs picta'.

Torre dei Lamberti(45 minutes)

Entrance through the Cortile Mercato Vecchio, ~€6 with the lift or 368 steps if you insist. 84 metres up and the best panorama in the city: terracotta roofs, the Adige loop, and the Arena seen from directly above with its open oval floor. The bells still ring on the hour and at close range they are genuinely painful — check your watch before you step onto the top platform.

Lunch at Caffè Filippini(1 hour)

Piazza delle Erbe 26, trading since 1901. Sit outside, order a plate of sopressa and a Filippini — the house cocktail of vermouth, gin and a whole slice of lemon, ~€8. Food is simple and the point is the square.

Piazza dei Signori & the Arche Scaligere(1 hour)

Through the Arco della Costa into Verona's quiet, formal second square, with Dante glowering in the middle (he took refuge here in 1303 and dedicated the Paradiso to Cangrande della Scala). Two minutes on, the Arche Scaligere are the Gothic tombs of the Scaligeri lords stacked in wedding-cake tiers behind a wrought-iron fence of ladder motifs — 'scala' means ladder. Free to view from the street, which is all you need.

Basilica di Sant'Anastasia(45 minutes)

~€4, or ~€8 for the Chiese Vive combined ticket that also gets you into the Duomo, San Zeno and San Fermo — buy it here and use it over the next three days. Verona's biggest church. The two crouching 'gobbi' (hunchbacks) holding the holy water stoups by the door are the local mascots. Pisanello's fresco of St George and the Princess is high up in the Pellegrini Chapel; there is a coin-operated light, and it is worth every cent.

Dinner at Trattoria al Pompiere(2 hours)

Vicolo Regina d'Ungheria 5 — book a few days ahead. Walls covered in signed photographs, a serious salumi counter and a cheese trolley that arrives whether or not you asked. Order pastissada de caval (horse stew with polenta) if you are willing; Verona has eaten it since the Ostrogoths and pretending otherwise is tourism. ~€45-55 a head with wine.

Casa di Giulietta at 8:30AM(45 minutes)

Via Cappello 23. The courtyard is free; the house and balcony ~€6. Go at opening or you are queueing to photograph the back of someone's head. Be clear-eyed about it: the balcony was bolted on in 1936 from an old sarcophagus specifically to give visitors something to shoot, the Capello family who owned the house have nothing to do with Shakespeare's fictional Capulets, and rubbing the bronze statue's right breast is a 20th-century invention. Treat it as civic theatre and it is delightful. The Juliet Club genuinely does answer the thousands of letters left on the wall.

Porta Borsari to Arco dei Gavi via Corso Cavour(45 minutes)

A straight 700m Roman decumanus. The Arco dei Gavi at the far end is a 1st-century AD triumphal arch built by a family rich enough to sign their own monument — the architect Vitruvius Cerdo carved his name on it, which almost never happens. Napoleon's troops dismantled it in 1805; it was rebuilt from the stored blocks in 1932, 20 metres from where it stood.

Museo di Castelvecchio(2 hours)

Corso Castelvecchio 2, ~€6. Cangrande II built the castle in 1354 to defend himself from his own citizens, not from foreigners. What you are here for is Carlo Scarpa's 1958-64 restoration: he stripped out the fascist-era fakery, cut the building open and hung Cangrande I's equestrian statue on a raw concrete beam in mid-air, grinning like a man who has heard a joke. The building is the exhibit. Pisanello, Bellini and Mantegna are the supporting cast. Verona's civic museums are usually free on the first Sunday of the month.

Ponte Scaligero(20 minutes)

Free, walk it out and back. The fortified castle bridge with Ghibelline swallowtail merlons; its 48.7m central arch was the longest span in the world when it was built. German troops blew it up in 1945 and it was rebuilt in 1949-51 from its own bricks dredged out of the Adige — you can see where the salvaged stone stops and the new begins.

Lunch at Trattoria I Masenini(1 hour)

Via Roma 34, a two-minute walk back toward Piazza Brà. Risotto all'Amarone here is done properly — the rice is Vialone Nano from Isola della Scala, 25 km south, which is the whole reason Veneto risotto works. ~€35 a head.

Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore(1.5 hours)

Piazza San Zeno, ~€4 or on your Chiese Vive ticket, generally 8:30AM-6PM (Sundays from 12:30PM). Give the 48 bronze door panels (11th-12th century) twenty minutes before you go in — they are a comic strip in metal, and the older left-hand panels are visibly cruder and better than the polished later ones. Inside: Mantegna's altarpiece of 1457-59 (the predella panels are copies; Napoleon took the originals and they are still in the Louvre and Tours), a statue of San Zeno smiling like he knows something, and the crypt where Shakespeare married Romeo and Juliet. The rose window is a Wheel of Fortune with figures riding it up and falling off.

Dinner in the San Zeno quarter(2 hours)

Stay out here — the square empties of visitors by 7PM and fills with locals. For a splurge, Casa Perbellini 12 Apostoli (Corticella San Marco 3, back toward the centre) holds two Michelin stars with the kitchen as the dining room; book weeks ahead, tasting menus from ~€150. Cheaper and excellent: any of the osterie ringing Piazza San Zeno for polenta e sopressa and a jug of Bardolino.

Duomo di Verona(45 minutes)

Piazza Duomo, ~€4 or on the Chiese Vive ticket. Titian's Assumption hangs in the first chapel on the left — his only work in the city. The ticket also opens San Giovanni in Fonte next door, where the 12th-century baptismal font is carved from a single block of marble, and the excavations of the earlier basilicas underneath.

Biblioteca Capitolare(45 minutes)

Piazza Duomo 13, ~€4-6. It claims to be the oldest continuously working library in the world — codices copied here in the early 500s are still in the building. Its treasure is a 5th-century palimpsest of Gaius' Institutes, scraped and overwritten in the 8th century and recovered in 1816; effectively the only surviving Roman law textbook. Opening hours are erratic and mostly mornings — check the day before or you will find a locked door.

Ponte Pietra(20 minutes)

Free. Verona's Roman bridge, 1st century BC, and the oldest structure in town. Retreating German troops blew it up in April 1945; between 1957 and 1959 it was rebuilt using stones fished out of the Adige riverbed. Stand at the north end and look back: the two white arches on the left are original Roman, the red brick ones on the right are 16th-century, and you can read the whole demolition and salvage in the colour change.

Teatro Romano & Museo Archeologico(1.5 hours)

Rigaste Redentore 2, ~€4.50 or on the VeronaCard. A 1st-century BC theatre cut into the hillside, buried under houses for centuries until a wealthy local bought the whole block in the 1830s and demolished it to dig them out. A lift takes you up through the rock into the former convent of San Girolamo, now the archaeological museum — small, empty, and with a terrace looking straight across at Ponte Pietra. It still hosts Shakespeare and jazz in the Estate Teatrale Veronese every June to September.

Lunch at Osteria Ponte Pietra(1 hour)

Via Ponte Pietra 34, at the bridge's south foot. Small, seasonal, ~€40 a head. If you want cheaper, cross into Veronetta and eat at Trattoria dal Ropeton (Via San Giovanni in Valle 46) with the university crowd for half that.

Giardino Giusti(1 hour)

Via Giardino Giusti 2, ~€10, 15-minute walk east. Laid out in 1580 and almost untouched since: a cypress avenue driven dead straight at the cliff, box parterres, a small hedge maze, and a grotesque stone Mascherone at the top with the belvedere behind it. Goethe wrote about it in 1786 and Mozart played here. Almost nobody comes, which is the point — it is the quietest beautiful place in Verona and you will likely have the upper terrace to yourself.

Funicular to Castel San Pietro for sunset(1.5 hours)

Base station on Via Fontanelle Santo Stefano, ~€2 return, one minute up. The castle itself is a Habsburg barracks and is not open — the terrace in front of it is the entire point, and it is free. Arrive 40 minutes before sunset: the Adige goes copper, the Arena reads as a grey oval in the roofscape, and the bells across the river all go off at slightly different times. Walk down afterwards via the stairs behind the Teatro Romano, ten minutes.

Dinner in Veronetta(1.5 hours)

Antica Trattoria da l'Amelia on Lungadige Rubele 32, or Osteria La Fontanina by the funicular base for something more polished. Veronetta is the student quarter — cheaper, louder, and the only part of the centre where you will hear more Italian than English at the next table.

Slow morning at Piazza Brà(2 hours)

Coffee and a slice of pandoro at a Liston café. Pandoro was invented here in 1894 by Domenico Melegatti, who patented the eight-pointed star mould; the version sold everywhere in Italy at Christmas is a Verona export. Then wander Via Mazzini's shops or just sit. You have earned it and today ends late.

Villa della Torre, Fumane(1.5 hours)

Allegrini's 16th-century Mannerist villa in Fumane, ~30 min from Verona, tours and tastings from ~€40, book ahead. The fireplaces are carved as the open mouths of monsters — you literally light a fire inside a demon's face. The tasting runs Valpolicella Classico up to Amarone and La Poja. Attributed variously to Giulio Romano and Michele Sanmicheli; nobody is certain, which is very Valpolicella.

Lunch at an estate agriturismo(1.5 hours)

Most producers will do a plate of Monte Veronese DOP cheese, sopressa and bread with the tasting for another ~€15-20 — take it. Drinking Amarone on an empty stomach at 2PM in a Veneto summer is a decision you will regret by four.

Zýmē, San Pietro in Cariano(1.5 hours)

Celestino Gaspari's winery is built into a disused 15th-century limestone quarry, so the cellar is the rock itself. Tastings ~€35, book. Gaspari trained under Giuseppe Quintarelli — the cult producer up the road in Negrar whose wines you will see on lists at €300 and whose cellar is effectively impossible to visit. This is the closest you will get to that lineage with a booking.

Pieve di San Giorgio di Valpolicella(45 minutes)

Free, and ask your driver for it — most tours skip it. A Romanesque church on a rock spur with a Lombard stone ciborium dated 712 AD, a small cloister, and a terrace looking down the whole valley toward the Adige. Ten minutes, no ticket, no crowd, and the best view in the Valpolicella.

Dinner at Antica Bottega del Vino(2 hours)

Vicolo Scudo di Francia 3, back in Verona. Trading since 1890 with a cellar of roughly 4,000 labels — this is where you order the vertical of Amarone you just learned to taste. Ask for a glass of Recioto with dessert: same dried grapes, fermentation stopped early, sweet, and the wine Amarone was accidentally invented from when a barrel was forgotten.

Bus or train to Sirmione(1 hour)

Direct ATV/Arriva bus 164 from Verona Porta Nuova, ~1h, ~€5, and it drops you at the castle bridge. Faster if you prefer: regional train to Desenzano del Garda-Sirmione (~20 min, ~€5) then bus 26 for another 20 min. Cars cannot pass the castle without a hotel permit, which is the best thing about the place.

Rocca Scaligera(45 minutes)

~€6, at the neck of the peninsula. A moated Scaligeri castle from the 13th century, water on all four sides, with a walkable curtain wall and a keep you can climb for the view down the spit. Same family whose tombs you saw in Verona — Garda was their western frontier.

Grotte di Catullo(1.5 hours)

~€8, closed Mondays, opens 8:30AM, at the far tip — a 20-minute walk up through the town. Not grottoes and probably not Catullus's: a vast 1st-century BC-1st century AD Roman villa collapsed into terraces above the water, set in an olive grove of some 1,500 trees. The largest Roman domestic ruin in northern Italy and half of it is roofless rooms opening straight onto blue. Go before 10AM and it is nearly silent.

Swim at Jamaica Beach(1 hour)

Right below the Grotte at the tip — a flat shelf of white limestone that runs out under 30cm of clear water before it drops off. No sand, no loungers, bring water shoes. In July the lake sits around 24-25°C. This is the one genuinely good swim on the south lake.

Lunch and a long sit in the old town(2 hours)

Eat lake fish — lavarello (whitefish) or a plate of fried alborelle. Avoid the front row of restaurants on the main drag facing the castle and walk two streets in; prices drop by a third and the fish stops being frozen. Then do nothing for an hour, which is what the day is for.

Aperitivo at Bardolino on the way back(1.5 hours)

If you have the energy, hop the lakeside bus up the eastern shore to Bardolino (~40 min) for a glass of Chiaretto — the pale rosé version of Bardolino — on the promenade as the light goes off the water, then bus 163/164 back to Verona, ~1h. If you do not, go straight home and eat pizza at du de Cope (Galleria Pellicciai 10) instead. Both are correct answers.

Last espresso on Piazza delle Erbe(45 minutes)

Go back one more time before the stalls open properly. Between 7:30 and 8:30AM the square belongs to delivery vans and the people who actually live above it, and the frescoes get the low light. This is the version of Piazza delle Erbe you came for.

Shopping at Salumeria G. Albertini(45 minutes)

Corso Sant'Anastasia 41 — a proper deli, not a gift shop. Vacuum-packed sopressa vicentina and Monte Veronese DOP will fly fine in checked baggage (EU to EU is unrestricted; note that meat and dairy cannot legally enter the US or UK). Add a bottle of Amarone from the Valpolicella producer you liked and a boxed Melegatti pandoro.

Left luggage and a final walk(1 hour)

If your flight is late, drop bags at Porta Nuova's left-luggage office (~€6 for a few hours) and walk the Adige embankment from Ponte Nuovo to Ponte Scaligero — 25 minutes, no ticket, and the last good look at the city from water level.

Aerobus back to VRN(15 minutes)

From Porta Nuova, every 20 minutes, ~€8. Allow for the 20-minute walk down from Piazza Brà on top of that. Verona is a small airport — landside food is poor, so eat before you go.