In Fair Verona…

 

Verona’s Roman Arena was built in 30 AD and could hold up to 30,000 people

I’ll be honest, the main reason why I wanted to visit Verona was to see Juliet’s balcony and to get swept away to Shakespeare land but turns out, it was the rest of Verona that captured me in the end.

For starters, Verona’s Roman Arena is way better preserved than the colosseum in Rome and I hear it hosts incredible open-air opera concerts in the summer. Also, it’s hard to beat the feeling of walking on the old Roman theater on San Pietro’s Hill, which was built in the first century!

Of course, one of my favorite parts of the day was lunch where I had the best risotto I’ve ever had at Hosteria La Vecchia Fontanina. We feasted on a bargain-priced lunch (complete with appetizer, entree, wine, and espresso) in a room full of business people that didn’t seem in any kind of rush to get back to the office.

Verona is known as one of the world’s most romantic cities and while Juliet’s balcony turned out to be a little too touristy for me, all the other little details of the city completely won me over.

Verona’s skyline is dominated by the Torre di Lamberti, which was built in 1172

View from the Museo Archeologico al Teatro Romano