City walk Veneto — Verona, Italy

Verona Historic Walk: The Arena, Piazza delle Erbe and the Adige

An easy day on foot through the compact old city of Verona — a Roman amphitheatre still used for opera, medieval market squares, the tombs and castle of the Scaliger lords, and the river bend crossed by the oldest bridge in town.

Verona Historic Walk: The Arena, Piazza delle Erbe and the Adige
Photo: Hoppend · CC0
Duration
1 day
Distance
4 km
Walking time (est.)
1 h
Difficulty
Easy
Best season
April–June and September–October

Walking

    Your location stays on this phone. It is never sent, stored or put in a link.

    Getting there and back

    Start
    Piazza Bra
    Finish
    Ponte Pietra

    One-way: plan your trip back

    Verona stacks its history in plain sight. A Roman amphitheatre that still fills for opera, a market square laid over the ancient forum, the Gothic tombs and fortress of the della Scala lords who ruled here in the Middle Ages, and — folded into all of it — the world’s most successful piece of literary tourism, the Juliet legend. It all sits inside a bend of the river Adige you can cross on foot in a morning.

    This route links the essentials in the order that makes sense on the ground, from Piazza Bra to the river. Wear shoes for cobblestones and leave time to wander between the marked stops.

    Getting there. Verona Porta Nuova is the main train station, about 1 hour 10 minutes from Venice and around 1 hour 20 from Milan; a short bus or taxi ride reaches Piazza Bra, where the walk begins. Verona’s Valerio Catullo airport is linked to the station by a frequent shuttle bus (about 20 minutes).

    Permits & tickets. The Arena charges admission. The VeronaCard, a 24-hour pass, covers the Arena, Castelvecchio, the Juliet’s House museum and more, and works out cheaper than single tickets if you visit more than a couple of them. The squares, the Scaliger Tombs seen from outside, and the Ponte Pietra are free.

    Good to know:

    Elevation profile

    Highest point
    70 m Day 1
    Lowest point
    57 m Day 1
    Total descent
    6 m

    Point at the profile, or focus it and use the arrow keys, to see that spot on the map.

    Terrain heights along a straight line between each day’s stops, not along the footpath, so a pass or a switchback the path takes can be missing. Descent and walking times use the same line.

    Elevation data: Terrain Tiles (Mapzen, AWS Open Data)

    Day by day

    DayDistanceAscentDescent (est.)Walking time (est.)
    Day 1 Hardest dayRoman Verona to the river
    Distance4 kmAscentNot recordedDescent (est.)6 mWalking time (est.)1 h

    Flights on Kayak Car rental on Localrent Travel eSIM on Airalo

    Day 1

    Roman Verona to the river

    Piazza Bra → Ponte Pietra 4 km 1 h

    A continuous line from Piazza Bra north through the market squares, then southwest to the castle and back to the river.

    Drinking water

    Places mapped by volunteers on OpenStreetMap; opening times and taps change, so check before relying on one. © OpenStreetMap contributors

    Segments

    1. The Roman Arena
      The Roman Arena 0.2 km Map

      Piazza Bra → Verona Arena

      City streets and paved square

      Begin in Piazza Bra at the Verona Arena, the Roman amphitheatre built in the first century AD and among the best-preserved to survive. It once held a crowd of about 30,000, and since 1913 it has staged one of the world's great open-air opera festivals each summer. Climb the tiers and look down into the arena floor. Allow about 60 minutes.

      About this place

      The Verona Arena is a Roman amphitheatre located in the historic center of Verona, Italy. It is among the best-preserved ancient amphitheatres to have survived into the modern era. This remarkable state of preservation is largely due to systematic restoration efforts that began in the 16th century.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Claconvr · CC BY-SA 4.0
    2. Piazza delle Erbe
      Piazza delle Erbe 0.6 km Map

      Verona Arena → Piazza delle Erbe

      City streets

      Walk north up Via Mazzini, Verona's elegant shopping street, to Piazza delle Erbe. The square sits on the site of the Roman forum and has been a market for centuries, ringed by frescoed palazzi and overlooked by the tall Torre dei Lamberti. At its centre a fountain carries the Madonna Verona, a statue assembled around a Roman-era figure. About 30 minutes.

      About this place

      Piazza delle Erbe is a square in Verona, northern Italy. It was once the town's forum during the time of the Roman Empire.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0
    3. Juliet's House & balcony 0.2 km Map

      Piazza delle Erbe → Casa di Giulietta

      City streets

      A short walk down Via Cappello reaches the Casa di Giulietta, a medieval house that once belonged to the Dal Cappello family — a name close enough to Shakespeare's Capulets to invite the connection. Be clear-eyed about it: the celebrated balcony was only added in the 1930s, and the tie to the fictional Juliet is a 20th-century tourist attachment, not a genuine historical site. The courtyard, its bronze Juliet statue and the letter-covered walls are free to enter; the house museum charges a small fee. About 20 minutes.

    4. Piazza dei Signori & the Scaliger Tombs
      Piazza dei Signori & the Scaliger Tombs 0.3 km Map

      Casa di Giulietta → Piazza dei Signori

      City streets and paved squares

      Continue to Piazza dei Signori, the dignified civic square framed by the Palazzo del Podestà, the arcaded Loggia del Consiglio and a brooding statue of Dante, who spent years of his exile in Verona. Just beside it stand the Scaliger Tombs, five Gothic funerary monuments of the della Scala family who ruled the city from the 13th to the late 14th century. About 30 minutes.

      About this place

      The Scaliger Tombs is a group of five Gothic funerary monuments in Verona, Italy, celebrating the Scaliger family, who ruled in Verona from the 13th to the late 14th century.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0
    5. Castelvecchio
      Castelvecchio 1 km Map

      Piazza dei Signori → Castelvecchio

      City streets

      Head southwest toward the river to Castelvecchio, the red-brick fortress the della Scala lords built in the 1350s and now the city's civic museum, famously restored in the 20th century by the architect Carlo Scarpa. Its fortified Ponte Scaligero, with swallow-tail battlements, strides across the Adige beside it. About 45 minutes.

      About this place

      Castelvecchio is a castle in Verona, northern Italy. It is the most important military construction of the Scaliger dynasty that ruled the city in the Middle Ages.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Arne Müseler · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
    6. The Adige and Ponte Pietra
      The Adige and Ponte Pietra 1.7 km Map

      Castelvecchio → Ponte Pietra

      Riverside streets

      Finish by following the Adige — the second-longest river in Italy — upstream to the Ponte Pietra, a Roman arch bridge first completed around 100 BC and the oldest in Verona. Blown up in the last days of the Second World War, it was rebuilt in the 1950s using the original stones recovered from the riverbed. From the far bank, or the Roman theatre on the slope above it, the view back over the rooftops closes the day. About 40 minutes.

      About this place

      The Ponte Pietra is a Roman arch bridge crossing the Adige River in Verona, Italy. The bridge was completed in 100 BC, and the Via Postumia from Genoa to Aquileia passed over it. It is the oldest bridge in Verona.

      Read more on Wikipedia Photo: Raphael Andres · CC BY 3.0

    Partner link: if you book through it we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It does not change what we recommend. How this works

    Comments