Verona Highlights & Hidden Gems Small-Group Walking Tour

Piazza Bra and the Verona Arena

Your Verona guided tour begins around Piazza Bra, the city's largest square, where the broad marble pavement of the Liston is lined with cafés and old palaces. Rising above it is the Arena, the Roman amphitheatre built around AD 30 in pink and white limestone from the nearby hills. It once held gladiator fights and wild animal shows before crowds of tens of thousands, and its inner ring of seating survives almost complete.

Only a fragment of the outer ring, four arches known as the Wing, stands today, after an earthquake in 1117 brought the rest down. Your guide explains how the building was kept in use through the Middle Ages and how, since 1913, it has hosted a famous summer opera festival under the stars. The tour stops outside for photos; entry to the Arena is not included.

Porta Borsari and Roman Verona

Following the line of the early medieval walls, the route reaches Corso Porta Borsari, which follows the main street of the Roman city. At its end stands Porta Borsari, a 1st-century gate in white limestone with two arches and two rows of windows above, once the main entrance to Verona from the Via Postumia. Its name comes from the bursarii, the officials who collected tolls here in the Middle Ages.

Nearby, the small church of San Giovanni in Foro is built right into Roman remains, and your guide shows you how to tell high medieval, late medieval and early modern buildings apart by their bricks, windows and arches. From Riva San Lorenzo you glimpse the Adige, with views towards Castelvecchio and its fortified bridge. It is a short section, but it reveals how much of the ancient city survives under the modern one.

Piazza delle Erbe

Piazza delle Erbe stands on the site of the Roman forum and has been Verona's market square for two thousand years. In the middle stands the Madonna Verona fountain, built in the 14th century around a Roman statue, and the oldest fountain in the city. Around the square rise the slender Lamberti Tower, the tallest in Verona at about 84 metres, the battlemented Merchants' House of 1301, the Baroque Palazzo Maffei crowned by statues of ancient gods, and a column bearing the winged lion of the Venetian Republic.

Look up at the painted façades of the Mazzanti houses, where faded frescoes still cover the walls. Your guide tells the story of the local market and how the square shaped civic life. The market stalls are busiest in the morning, but the square is lively at any hour, and this stop of about 10 minutes is one of the best for photographs.

Piazza dei Signori and the Courtyard of the Old Market

A few steps away, through an arch, lies the calm and elegant Piazza dei Signori, the political heart of medieval Verona. Your guide points out the Palazzo della Ragione, once the city's court, the Palazzo del Capitano, the residence of the della Scala lords who ruled Verona in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the graceful Loggia del Consiglio, a jewel of the early Renaissance with statues lining its roof.

Inside the Palazzo della Ragione is the Courtyard of the Old Market, where the Gothic marble staircase known as the Scala della Ragione climbs in a single sweep to the upper floor, a favourite photograph of the tour. Here you also learn how Verona passed from independent commune to lordship and then to Venetian rule, a story told in the buildings around you.

The Scaliger Tombs, Casa di Romeo and Sant'Anastasia

Behind the square stand the Scaliger Tombs, or Arche Scaligere, the Gothic funerary monuments of the della Scala family, raised under tall stone canopies and closed by a wrought-iron fence decorated with ladders, the family emblem. Nearby is Casa di Romeo, a battlemented medieval house linked by legend to the Montecchi family. Your guide explains the true history behind the legend and why Juliet's House needed a balcony to match it.

The walk then reaches Sant'Anastasia, the largest church in Verona, built by the Dominicans between the late 13th and 15th centuries, whose holy-water stoups rest on the backs of two carved kneeling figures. At Piazzetta Bra Molinari the river opens up, with views over the Adige towards Ponte Pietra and the hill of the Roman theatre, the most scenic pause of the afternoon.

Hidden Corners and the End of the Tour

The final part leaves the busiest streets for places most visitors never find: the leafy garden square of Piazza Indipendenza, the quiet street of the old Jewish quarter with its 19th-century synagogue, the Gothic church of Santa Maria della Scala and several secret stops your guide keeps as a surprise. These corners give the tour its name and show the everyday Verona behind the postcards.

You finish along Via Dietro Anfiteatro, behind the Arena, where giant stage sets for the summer opera are often stored in the open air. Before you part, your guide shares useful local addresses that make the rest of your stay easier. For anyone looking for things to do in Verona with only one afternoon, this walk ties all the main sights together in two hours.