← Brescia Art Marathon·1 night

Verona: Arena, Bridges and a Night in the Old Town

One night in a Roman city with a first-century amphitheatre, a Renaissance bridge over the Adige and squares that are all within a flat walk of each other.

Duration1 night
TransitRegional or fast train, about 40 min from Brescia
DepartsBrescia

After the Brescia Art Marathon: Verona

The Route: Brescia → Verona Porta Nuova → Old town Logistics: Regional or fast train from Brescia, about 40 minutes, then a walk of roughly 20 minutes or a short bus ride to the Arena. Marathon Month: March Duration: 1 night

Brescia ──(40 mins train)──> Verona Porta Nuova ──(walk 20 mins)──> Piazza Bra ──> Arena
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                                                        Piazza delle Erbe / Ponte Pietra

Verona was a Roman city, then a Venetian one, and it still contains a good deal of both. The Arena is the centre of it, an amphitheatre built in the first century AD that seats thousands for opera in summer. In March the opera season is not yet running and the town is quiet, which suits a runner with legs that have opinions about hills.

March in Verona: cool and often bright, with daytime temperatures around 10 to 15 °C. The old town is small and flat, so most of it is walkable. The summer crowds have not arrived.

Trains from Brescia to Verona Porta Nuova run frequently on the main line and take about 40 minutes on a regional service. Buy a ticket at the station or on the app. Check trenitalia.com for the Monday schedule.

Night one: the old town

From Porta Nuova station, walk up Corso Porta Nuova to Piazza Bra, a walk of around 20 minutes on level pavement, or take a city bus. Piazza Bra is a big oval square with the Arena on one side. The amphitheatre is open for visits outside performance dates, and the ticket price varies, so check the operator's site for the current fee and Monday opening hours.

From Piazza Bra, Via Mazzini runs to Piazza delle Erbe, a market square on the site of the Roman forum. A stall market has traded here for centuries and the surrounding buildings carry frescoed façades. The Torre dei Lamberti, a medieval tower on the square, has a lift to the top and a wide view over the roofs and the river. Check its hours.

The Adige loops around the old town. The Ponte Pietra, a stone bridge with Roman origins, is the best crossing, and the pedestrian streets on the other bank lead up to the Roman theatre. Most of the paving is smooth, and the climb to the theatre is short but steep, so leave it if your legs say no. Castelvecchio, the fourteenth-century castle on the western side of the centre, holds the city's main art museum and a covered bridge. Check its Monday hours, as many Italian state and municipal museums close on Mondays.

Juliet's balcony, on Via Cappello, is a courtyard that draws a queue of visitors and photographs. It is a tourist attraction, not a historical site, and the queue is worth a glance rather than a wait.

For dinner, Verona's cooking tends to be heavy. Pastissada de caval, a slow-cooked horse-meat stew, is the local classic, and risotto all'Amarone uses the region's big red wine. Amarone della Valpolicella is the wine to try, and a glass in a wine bar in the side streets off Piazza delle Erbe is a fair reward. Choose a restaurant near your hotel and check its Monday opening hours before you set out.

Hotels in the old town cluster around Piazza Bra and Piazza delle Erbe, and rates are lower in March than in summer. A room near Piazza Bra puts you a short walk from the Arena. If your legs are stiff, a hotel near Porta Nuova station is easier for the morning train, though it adds a walk on the way in.

Getting home

Trains back to Brescia run through the day, and Verona also has an airport, Valerio Catullo, with a shuttle bus from Porta Nuova station. Check the timetable for your flight and allow extra time on a Monday morning.