Verona

Conveniently located on the motorway between Venice and Milan, Verona is quite popular among tourists.

The city is famous because of Juliet's patio and a balcony. Shakespeare decided to settle the famous lovers in Verona. What to say... the patio is here, the balcony too, as well as crowds of tourists. Not very romantic, is it?

Everyone is trying to touch the ​​breast of Juliet. In 2013, it was discovered that one of her breasts was severely worn and needed restoration.


The second place that attracts tourists in Verona is a historic amphitheater Arena (152 m long and 123 m wide), located in the heart of the city on the Piazza Bra. Every year an Opera Festival is held here (information).


Fortunately, it's not all sights of the city. Verona has a great old city, where you can walk all day long.

As well as in other Italian cities, cars are not allowed in the old city. So we left the car at a large parking lot near the city walls and went for a walk on foot. Actually, at first we used a bus as the old city is quite large. We decided to go to the viewing platform near the St. Peter's Castle and then walk back to the car through the old city. If you're planning to use the city bus, here you can download a great map of the routes and see the schedule (the same information for the buses that run on the weekend can be found only at the Italian version of the website). We used the bus #95.

It's quite easy to get to the observation deck. Just go to the Ponte Pietra Bridge and continue straight ahead and up. To the left of the bridge is a funicular, but at the time of our visit (2012) it was abandoned, probably because of another Italian strike, e.g. the drivers of funiculars :) The bridge, by the way, is the oldest in Verona. On the two arcades near the left bank, ancient facing was preserved. During the war, the Nazis destroyed the bridge, but later it was rebuilt from the wreckage by drawings and photos.


The observation deck near the St. Peter's Castle is just wonderful. There's only a few tourists here as not everyone wants to climb the hill on foot.






Going down from the observation deck, we went for a walk around the old city. There are many cozy streets and beautiful buildings here. At the bottom of the page is a great map of the downtown, we visited all marked places and walked on the city walls.

There's an observation deck in the Lamberti tower on the Piazza delle Erbe. For 2 euros you can go up on a lift.

We found a cathedral named after Anastasia :)


Bride and groom in a very picturesque patio


Mr Bean's car :)


Cool pool where you can walk on water.


And other interesting things and places


































Getting there: There's an airport just 12 kilometers away from the downtown. Buses to the city run every 20 minutes, the ticket price is 6 euros (information and schedule). The bus station is located on the Porta Nuova Square, near the city wall. The train station is also here.