Shakespeare's stage made real — a Roman amphitheatre seating 15,000 still hosts opera in the open air, Juliet's famous balcony draws pilgrims who leave love-locks by the ton, and Verona's wine roads lead to Valpolicella and Amarone
Verona is a city of 260,000 in the Veneto region, enclosed in a bend of the Adige River and enclosed by a UNESCO World Heritage historic centre that packs three millennia of history into a walkable medieval grid. The Arena di Verona (1st century CE) is one of the world's best-preserved Roman amphitheatres — it still seats 15,000 people for the annual summer opera festival (Verdi's Aida debuted here in 1913), with the acoustics un-amplified. Piazza Bra, Piazza delle Erbe (Verona's ancient forum), the Scaligeri Arches, the Roman bridge Ponte Pietra, and the medieval churches of Sant'Anastasia a…
Verona became a Roman colony in 89 BCE and a major city under Augustus — the Arena was built under Emperor Claudius (c. 30 CE) and the Roman theatre across the river (still partially excavated) dates to the same era. In the 13th–14th century the della Scala (Scaligeri) family made Verona one of the most powerful signorie of northern Italy; their arched Gothic tombs (Arche Scaligere) stand in the centre of the city. Shakespeare set Romeo and Juliet here around 1594, and though the Casa di Giulietta has no authentic connection to the play (the 'Capulet' coat of arms was added in the 1930s to at…