Verona Italy

Verona is another place that doesn’t show up high on the list of cities to visit for Americans, it was never really on my radar until recently. It’s a shame because Verona is great. If I had to describe Verona in a sentence it’d be “A little Rome”. It has everything that Rome has in smaller, quieter, and more intimate settings. The fact there’s no cars in the old area is awesome.

We stayed in an apartment a few blocks from Via Roma in the old city and actually walked from the train station to the apartment with our luggage which took 15 minutes. We’re walkers so it wasn’t a big deal.

Sightseeing:
OK, Rome has the Colosseum but can you see a concert inside? The Arena in Piazza Bra is incredible in that they still use it. It looks like it should have been condemned in the 3rd century, but it is beautiful. There were concerts every night we were there with music bellowing throughout the square. This Piazza is surrounded by restaurants and cafes. Late one night we ate at one and it was good. I’ve said before, there really isn’t bad food in Italy.

Strada Mazzini is like Rodeo Drive for pedestrians with all the high-end shops you can imagine and not imagine. Not my thing but great fun strolling down with all the people.

Piazza Erbe: This square is the old herb market and a GREAT place to grab an Aperol Spritz and just enjoy the old world charm of Verona. The architecture of the surrounding buildings is breathtaking. It’s lined with cafes and filled with vendors in the open air market.

Points of Interest: There’s the old stone bridge, Roman theater, churches, cathedrals, a torre and cool buildings on every corner. Also the remains of the old castle. Everything can be covered by foot in a day. We walked the outside of the river first looking back into the city before spending a couple of days exploring inside. Here’s a list.

Romeo and Juilette’s balcony is in the old part of town and creates huge traffic jams of people. BTW - it’s totally bogus, IMHO. They made it up but it works as people travel to see it.

Food: Good stuff. There’s also plenty of high end dining.
Like everywhere in Italy they eat a lot of pasta, sliced ham and cheese. Typically, each place will have their regional spin on it.

Antica Bottega del Vino - cork dork alert! Damn, I just happen to see this place in an alley as we walked and said “let’s check it out”. Uhh… It’s one of the most famous wine places in Italy, if not the most. I was in Volterra and a wine bar owner was talking about this place as the best in Italy. There’s a vertical of Armagnac going back to 1915 on the wall which you can order a glass. Every birth year is covered here. Another wall has a row of empty Petrus. Very cool place.

Parma a Tavola - maybe 10 tables in the entire place and a line of 20 people waiting to be seated. I don’t care how good a place is I’m not waiting like that. Next day we were walking by, no line and a great table upstairs! Homemade pasta, small, intimate, like you’re eating at Nonna’s kitchen table.

Cafe 33 - place is RIGHT across the street from the old castle, we went for a cocktail and they had all kinds of buffet food for 2 Euro. A guy was playing tunes from the 50’s on a piano and the place was filled with locals. There’s a downstairs in a cellar and nobody was there. So we had the cave to ourselves.

Looking forward to your trip reports Brig. This one will be interesting to compare to my own experience there.

Had a great lunch at

Go here:

Up in the hills above Verona in San Giorgio di Valpolicella. If you are offered an after meal glass of very dark liquid from an unlabeled bottle, it is likely recioto from the neighbor, Quintarelli.

Bump. added my takes in the original post. I really liked the place, a lot.

Some Rick Steves takes on Verona at the 12:30 minute mark

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Dude, photos, must have photos.

Here’s Bogetta Vino

I’ve got photos! Wife has taken almost 2K pix so far. Posted a few from the wine restaurant.

Here’s pix from Tripadvisor https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187871-d2054361-Reviews-Antica_Bottega_del_Vino-Verona_Province_of_Verona_Veneto.html#photos;geo=187871&detail=2054361

Now we’re getting somewhere.

Good to read the trip report Brig. Many thanks for that and I’m sure it and the others will be very useful / inspire people to visit.

Oddly, when we went to Bottega del Vino, the wines were a little disappointing - and what was it with those stupidly oversized glasses? (they could probably have held a full magnum). However the food really did impress. They may have been traditional & unfussy dishes, but made to a very high standard. Simple done perfectly is far more enjoyable than something a notch down but with tuiles, swirls and smears for effect. You were very lucky to stumble across it, as it’s definitely tucked away. We didn’t book, but arriving ~ 1:30-2pm seemed a good move as tables were clearing. In busy periods I’d recommend booking, but also to make sure you can find it on a map.

The arena is impressive and the acoustics very impressive. For us the visit to the opera will be a one-off, but a memorable one. Replicating the same production from 100 years prior, complete with two white horses in the procession and a huge stage filled with performers, was crazy but brilliant. Definitely worth doubling up on the cushions though and the melee for taxi after the performance was quite unedifying.

I agree the fancy shops are everywhere on that road and around. I found this more disturbing than you, as this shouted out that many tourists were here with big wallets, and the city would bend itself to accommodate them. Now there is an irony to my criticism, after all I was one of those very same tourists, but I go to Italy to enjoy the culture, the regionality and the tradition, but here it had been displaced to service the upmarket tourists who frequent the opera. I hear similar recent criticisms of Ravello on the Amalfi coast, and I must admit I was shocked to see that a Murano glass shop had replaced the butcher’s shop opposite where we’d previously stayed. We tourists can be awfully efficient at destroying the charm of the places we visit. It was amazing how difficult it was to find a bread shop in the centre of Verona and likewise my normal joy of the small traditional food shops was curtailed. I was however lucky to find Gastronomia Scapin on via Armando Diaz (where many buses stop), which was a very well stocked place to get the food to take back to our apartment. I’d all but given up. I’m told that the places I would normally expect do exist, but that they’ve gravitated away from the arena / old town, either across the river or out to the west.

The friends we traveled to Verona with were returning, having holidayed there two decades before. Being the last week of the opera season probably compounded it, but they were shocked at how it had changed. The volume of tourists, but also the fancy tourist-influenced shops. From Verona we moved onto Trento, and they remarked it reminded them of Verona before the tourists took hold of the city.

There is most definitely bad food in Italy, though typically found in places where there is easy non-repeat customers, mostly around the tourist hot-spots. The worst I experienced was coming off an afternoon / evening boat trip in the Aeolian Islands, at a bar overlooking Lipari harbour. I swear the pasta had come out of a tin and been put in the microwave. Truly awful, but a reminder of where to eat and where to be cautious of eating. I wasn’t as angry with the bar as I was with myself.

Rick Steves is an interesting mention. On a travel forum I frequent, his name is often mentioned in similar context to Robert Parker here. In fairness he has done a lot to open up more of Italy to American travellers, getting many to think beyond Rome, Venice and Florence (with a half day trip to see the leaning tower in Pisa). I sense that he is/was a good writer with a very good feel for his subject. However the enormous success has resulted in places he recommended moving from pleasant, charming and moderately touristed locations, to over-touristed places that are losing their identity. The comparison to Parker is the peril of huge numbers following one leading influencer and that often being counter-productive. In Parker’s case he drove prices up as people chased the wines that got high points from him, and in Steve’s case the charming gems become less charming as the hordes of tourists arrive.

My apologies for adding some controversial thoughts to the thread and I hope they don’t take anything away from your excellent trip report, nor put people off trying Verona for themselves. I do have double-standards, being a regular tourist to Italy, yet actively disliking high tourist volumes.

Regards
Ian