Verona Walking Tour with Arena Tickets & Cable Car Ride

Piazza Bra, Verona's Grand Square

Piazza Bra is the largest square in Verona and the natural start of any walk through the city. Its name comes from an old word for an open field, because this was once farmland just outside the medieval walls. Along the west side runs the Liston, a broad pavement of pink Verona marble lined with cafés, and around the square stand the neoclassical Palazzo Barbieri, now the town hall, the Gran Guardia palace begun in 1610 and the twin arches of the Portoni della Bra, part of the 14th-century walls.

Your guide meets you in front of the Arena and spends the first minutes here setting the scene: how a Roman colony on a loop of the Adige became a free medieval commune and then part of the Venetian state. The square is busy morning and evening, and the gardens in the middle, with their fountain, are a pleasant place to wait before the start.

Verona Arena: Inside the Roman Amphitheatre

The Verona Arena was built around AD 30, when the city was a thriving Roman town on the road over the Alps. Made of pink and white limestone quarried in the nearby hills, it once held about 30,000 spectators for gladiator games and hunts. An earthquake in 1117 brought down almost all of the outer ring; the four arches still standing, known as the Ala, show how tall the building used to be. The inner ring and the stepped seating survive almost complete.

With skip-the-line Verona Arena tickets you avoid the queue at the gate and spend about 30 minutes inside, walking the vaulted corridors, climbing the steps and looking down on the oval floor. Since 1913 the Arena has hosted a famous summer opera festival, and it is the only Roman amphitheatre where such large stage shows are still held. Note that the Arena closes on Mondays.

Juliet's House and the Medieval Lanes

From the Arena the guide leads you along Via Mazzini, the elegant shopping street, to Via Cappello and Juliet's House. The building is a genuine 13th-century tower house that belonged to the Dal Cappello family, whose name and hat emblem you can still see carved above the inner arch. The stone balcony was added in the 20th century, and the walls of the passage are covered in notes and padlocks left by visitors from every country.

Juliet's House tickets are often sold out in high season, so the pre-reserved timed entry included with this option is a real advantage. It is a self-guided visit: you enter the courtyard, climb to the rooms with their frescoed fireplaces and period furniture, and step out onto the balcony itself. Allow 20 to 30 minutes, and keep the time slot on your ticket in mind.

Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori

Piazza delle Erbe stands on the site of the Roman forum and has been the city's market square for two thousand years. Look for the Madonna Verona fountain, whose statue is Roman, the column with the winged lion of the Venetian Republic, the frescoed Mazzanti houses and the Casa dei Mercanti of 1301. Above it all rises the Lamberti Tower, begun in 1172 and 84 metres tall, and on the way to Piazza dei Signori you pass under an arch where a whale rib has hung for centuries.

Your guide explains the merchant guilds, the lords who ruled Verona in the Middle Ages and the elegant square of government next door. Food and shopping at the market stalls are not included, but the free minutes here are a good moment to try a local pastry or buy souvenirs, which is part of what makes Verona worth visiting on foot.

Cable Car to Saint Peter's Hill (Colle San Pietro)

Crossing the Adige by the Ponte Pietra, the only Roman bridge left in Verona, you reach the lower station of the cable car, a short funicular that climbs the hillside in about two minutes. Saint Peter's Hill has been a lookout since before Roman times; the long pale building on the top is an Austrian barracks of the 1850s, built where a medieval castle once stood, and the terrace below it is the best viewpoint in the city.

From here the whole of Verona lies at your feet: the river loop, the domes and bell towers, the Arena and the terracotta roofs stretching to the mountains. Your guide points out each landmark before you walk down the stepped lanes past the Roman Theatre of the 1st century BC and along the riverbank, a gentle descent of about 30 minutes that brings you back to the centre and to Piazza Bra.