Verona itinerary for first-timers

Piazza Bra is Verona's living room: a huge square with the pink-and-white stone of the Roman Arena on one side and a long row of café terraces, the Liston, on the other. The Arena was built in the 1st century AD and is one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres anywhere; in summer its stone tiers fill for the opera festival. Facing it stand the columned Palazzo Barbieri, the city hall, and the Gran Guardia.

• Verona Arena
• The Liston
• Palazzo Barbieri
• Gran Guardia
• Portoni della Brà

Go inside the Arena in the morning, before the stone heats up; in the opera season the stage sets stand in the square and parts of the interior may be closed on performance days.

At the end of the shopping street of Via Mazzini, Piazza delle Erbe sits on the site of the Roman forum. Frescoed houses, market stalls, the Madonna Verona fountain with its Roman statue and the column of St Mark fill the long square, and a whale rib hangs under the Arco della Costa. Above it rises the Lamberti Tower, about 84 metres tall, whose top gives the best view over the red roofs of the old town.

• Madonna Verona fountain
• Lamberti Tower
• Case Mazzanti
• Arco della Costa
• Palazzo della Ragione courtyard

The courtyard of the Palazzo della Ragione, with its grand outdoor staircase, is the way into the Lamberti Tower; a lift goes most of the way up.

A few steps from Piazza delle Erbe, Via Cappello leads to the medieval house linked to Shakespeare's Juliet. The courtyard, with its bronze statue of Juliet and the famous balcony, is one of the busiest spots in Italy; the balcony itself was added in the 20th century, but the romance of the place draws visitors from all over the world. The walls of the entrance passage are covered in notes left by lovers.

• Juliet's balcony
• Juliet statue
• Courtyard love notes
• Via Cappello

The courtyard is quietest first thing in the morning or in the last hour before closing; at midday expect to queue just to get through the passage.

Just behind Piazza delle Erbe, the calmer Piazza dei Signori was the political heart of medieval Verona, ringed by the palaces of the della Scala lords and the elegant Loggia del Consiglio, with a statue of Dante, who found refuge here in exile. Around the corner, the Scaliger Tombs are a cluster of Gothic funerary monuments behind wrought-iron railings, topped by equestrian statues of the family who ruled the city.

• Dante statue
• Loggia del Consiglio
• Scaliger Tombs
• Palazzo del Capitanio

The Ponte Pietra is Verona's Roman bridge, blown up at the end of the Second World War and rebuilt with stones fished out of the river. On the far bank, a funicular or a stairway climbs to the terrace of Castel San Pietro, the classic viewpoint over the bend of the Adige, the towers and the domes of the old town. On the way down, the Roman Theatre is set into the hillside, its tiers still used for summer performances.

• Ponte Pietra
• Castel San Pietro funicular
• Panoramic terrace
• Roman Theatre

Time the climb for sunset, when the whole city turns golden; walking up the steps takes about 10 minutes, the funicular a minute or two.

Castelvecchio is the brick fortress of the della Scala lords, built in the 14th century on the river and now a museum of medieval and Renaissance art. Its fortified bridge, the Ponte Scaligero, crosses the Adige between swallowtail battlements; it was destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt piece by piece. Just outside the castle stands the Arco dei Gavi, a Roman arch from the 1st century AD.

• Castelvecchio Museum
• Ponte Scaligero
• Arco dei Gavi
• Adige riverside

Walk across the Ponte Scaligero and back along the riverside for the best view of the castle walls reflected in the Adige.

Porta Borsari is the white stone façade of the main Roman gate into ancient Verona, standing in the middle of the street since the 1st century AD. Beyond it, Corso Porta Borsari follows the line of the old Roman road towards Piazza delle Erbe, a narrow street of shops and palaces that is one of the nicest ways into the centre.

• Porta Borsari
• Corso Porta Borsari
• Via Oberdan

Sant'Anastasia is the largest church in Verona, a tall Gothic brick basilica famous inside for its painted vaults, its Pisanello fresco of St George and two little hunchback figures that hold up the holy water basins. A short walk north through quiet lanes, the Cathedral combines a Romanesque façade with a richly decorated interior that includes Titian's Assumption, and sits in a complex of cloisters and older churches.

• Basilica of Sant'Anastasia
• Pisanello's St George
• Verona Cathedral
• Titian's Assumption
• Via Duomo

Verona's main churches share a combined ticket, which is worth it if you plan to visit Sant'Anastasia, the Cathedral and San Fermo.

By the Ponte delle Navi, San Fermo Maggiore is really two churches stacked one on top of the other: a Romanesque lower church and a Gothic upper church under a magnificent wooden ceiling shaped like the hull of a ship. From here Via Leoni leads back towards the centre past Porta Leoni, a Roman gate with the excavated stones of the ancient street visible below today's pavement.

• San Fermo Maggiore
• Ponte delle Navi
• Via Leoni
• Porta Leoni

As the light fades, follow the locals on their evening stroll. Via Stella runs past the convent of Santa Maria della Scala to the little Piazza San Nicolò, then opens onto Piazza Bra, where the Arena is lit up and the wide pavement of the Liston fills with people walking, talking and stopping for an aperitivo.

• Via Stella
• Santa Maria della Scala
• Piazza San Nicolò
• Arena by night
• The Liston

On opera nights the square is busiest just before the performance; afterwards the streets around Piazza Bra stay lively late into the night.