Return to Verona photos

The home of Romeo and Juliet is much more than a Shakespearean setting. From its Roman Arena through beautifully preserved medieval, Rennaisance, and Gothic monuments, to its elegant modern buildings, it is one of the more interesting and exciting cities in Italy. The regular grid of downtown streets is preserved from the original Roman plans.

The Arena (1C, looking much like Rome’s Coliseum but in much much better condition!) is the third largest such structure in existence. Although it is obviously very large today, it was once even bigger. The highest fragment of the wall, called the Aia (shown in picture 11) reveals the arena’s original height. The arena is still in use today, often for city fairs, etc., and in the summer for opera (one of our dreams is to see Aida in the Verona Aida—elephants, camels, and all!). The Christmas star shown here is an example of the integration of this 2,000-year-old structure into a city approaching the 3rd millenium.

The street scenes shown here are from a "pre-Carnevale" celebration. It was never quite clear how one decides to "practice" for Carnevale (the equivalent of Mardi Gras), but the Veronese were doing it very well!

The Castelvecchio on the Adige River is a reminder of one of the grimmer chapters in Verona’s history. It was built on the river bank in the mid-14C as fortress and residence for the Scaliger lords, beginning with the tyrant Can Grande II della Scala. Unfortunately for him, the castle was of no use against rebellions by the people—he was stabbed by his own brother! The castle, like so many other buildings in Italy, is now a museum. (We speculate that museum admissions must be the major income source in Italy, but we have no proof of that!)