Italy
Verona
A Roman arena still hosting opera under summer stars, the balcony just the excuse to come.
The Arena rises at the city's centre like a colosseum that never stopped working. On summer nights its tiers fill and Aida rolls off stone that held gladiators two thousand years ago. Verona smells of espresso, river mist and the Amarone staining half the tablecloths in town.
Verona curls inside a bend of the Adige beneath the Lessini hills, its first-century Roman amphitheatre still the city's beating heart. The summer opera festival has filled the Arena's open oval since 1913. Shakespeare set Romeo and Juliet here; the famous balcony is a twentieth-century addition, and the city wears the association lightly and profitably. The Valpolicella and Soave vineyards begin just past the suburbs, while the Basilica of San Zeno keeps its bronze doors and Mantegna altarpiece for anyone who walks ten minutes from the queues.
Couple
Opera in a Roman arena under summer stars, then river walks and wine bars to fill the days around it.
Friends
Split a bottle of Amarone in a medieval enoteca and argue over whether the balcony deserves its queue.
Family
The Arena impresses any age, the Adige bank makes an easy stroll, and the gelato on Piazza delle Erbe settles debates.
- The Arena's opera festival has run since 1913, sung in the open air on Roman stone.
- Three Roman monuments sit within a short walk: the Arena, the Arco dei Gavi and the Ponte Pietra, still carrying foot traffic.
- Valpolicella and Soave estates begin a short drive away, pouring at the source.
- San Zeno's bronze doors and Mantegna altarpiece wait ten minutes from the balcony queues.
Risotto all'Amarone marries Vialone Nano rice to the Valpolicella's mighty dried-grape wine.
Pearà, a peppery bread-and-marrow sauce made nowhere else, arrives alongside Verona's boiled meats.
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