Pilgrims of Verona

Theatre plays a central role in Verona’s life and has done for some time. More than 2,000 years, if we use the city’s Roman Arena as a starting point. 

Built in the first century AD, the Arena is Italy’s third largest set of boards, after the Colosseum in Rome and the amphitheatre of Capua. It seats up to 22,000 people and hosts Verona’s annual opera festival in July and August. 

Although he never visited, Shakespeare chose Verona as the setting for Romeo and Juliet  (and a few other less famous plays).

Crowds now flock to Juliet’s balcony and stick love letters on the walls nearby. It matters not to these pilgrims that the play is fiction and the balcony a fake. 

But not everyone’s happy. “Determined as I am somehow to vent my rage at being shown Juliet’s house, a picturesque and untidy tenement, with balconies certainly too high for love, unless Juliet was a trapeze acrobat, accustomed to hanging downwards by her toes. This was not Juliet’s house, for the sufficient reason that so far as authentic history knows, there never was a Juliet,” huffed traveller Arnold Bennett in his journal of 1929.

Authentic history abounds elsewhere in Verona. As do the summer crowds. So the best thing to do is get out early, finish the day’s sightseeing by noon, then make a beeline for lunch in the shade. 

We covered a fair bit of ground on our first morning, starting at Piazza Bra.

We walked along the marble-lined via Mazzini, stopped for coffee on Piazza Erbe, and returned later for lunch on Piazza Signorini. 

Verona is a beautiful, compact and very walkable city. And it has great food and wine.

I know, I know, you can say that about most places in this beautiful country. But Verona is particularly blessed with wines from Soave, Valpolicella and Lugana; and fresh produce from the surrounding gardens and farms of Lombardy and Veneto.

The best food recommendation again came from Nicoletta Fornaro at Naturally Epicurean, who put us onto a historical osteria called Antica Bodega del Vino:

‘... crowded with elderly locals (which is always a good sign!) and groups of friends. The wooden interiors, the elegant writings engraved on the wooden beams and the super inviting wine list and cicheti should make good reasons enough for a quick break. The Bottega is divided into two areas, the osteria and the restaurant, and the food is very very good.’

The place was buzzing when we arrived a little after 1pm. A gorgeous copper-clad bar took pride of place, behind which two sommeliers worked: chatting with customers, suggesting a taste of this or that, and occasionally updating the blackboard list of fine wines by the glass.

We nabbed one of the last available tables in the osteria and settled in for the show. Elderly locals did indeed wander in for a glass of vino and a chat, enlivening the room with news of the day.

Lunch was a simple plate of pasta and a glass or two of wine. On our waiter’s advice, I had the Maccheroni all’Uovo con Pesto di Basilico e Burrata.

Hard to know for sure, because I may have been entranced by the lights and the colour and movement. But I think I just ate the best macaroni with pesto I’ve ever had. Ever.