Overview
Verona is famous as the setting for the story of Romeo and Juliet and also, today, as the place to go and see spectacular summer productions of opera in its huge Roman arena.
The city was established in 80 AD by the Romans, and became a thriving, wealthy colony. After the fall of the Empire in the 5th century AD, many armies from the north fought over Verona, but it eventually gained independent status as a city commune in 1107. Although the threat of foreign attack was over, Verona was still a violent place to live in, as the city’s noble families now became embroiled, along with the rest of Italy, in the struggles between the Guelph and Ghibelline political factions. The Guelphs supported the Pope, and the Ghibellines, the Holy Roman Emperor – then the two most powerful people on the political map in this part of Europe. Each side had its own way of building battlements – rectangular for the Guelphs (as seen on the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence) and swallow-tail-shaped for the Ghibellines (you’ll see plenty in Verona). This situation was the cause of the hatred between Romeo and Juliet’s fathers.
In 1259, Verona was taken over by the Della Scala family, or Scaligeri, who were great warmongers and like the neighbouring Gonzagas of Mantua, earned a fortune by making themselves and their armies available to fight, in return for handsome payment, in other cities’ power struggles. The della Scalas gave themselves ferocious titles – Cangrande, Mastino and Cansignorio (Big Dog, The Mastiff and Dog Lord) – presumably designed to make their enemies tremble at the mere mention of their names. However in 1387, they were kicked off the scene by the Visconti family of Milan, who controlled the city until 1402, when the people of Verona, who’d had enough of being governed by tyrannnical nobles, voted to join the Venetian Republic. Much later, in 1797, Verona rose up against Napoleon, who retaliated by sending his troops in to ransack much of the city. It then came under the Austrian rule of North Italy, until it joined the newly formed Italian Kingdom in 1866.
WALKING TOUR
The coach drops you (and will later meet you) under the city walls on the Via Pallone. Walk the group up the Via Pallone with the walls on your left, and you will reach the Piazza Bra and the Arena.
The Arena
Although it is not as big as the Colosseum in Rome, Verona’s amphitheatre was among the largest in the Roman Empire, and could seat 25,000 spectators on its 44 tiers of seating. Verona needed a sizeable pleasure-dome in Roman times – its situation on the wide, navigable River Adige, which flows down from the Brenner Pass in the Alps and out into the Adriatic below Venice, made it a busy, prosperous place with a large population. These citizens enjoyed the usual highlights of Roman entertainment in the Arena – gladiatorial contests (begun under the Republic in Rome and designed to enhance the Roman army’s efficiency and ferocity by making its soldiers indifferent to death), men fighting against animals, animals tearing each other to death, public tortures of condemned criminals – the bloodier and more violent, the better.
Since 1913, however, people have come here to watch more palatable spectacles – operas and ballets are performed in the Arena each summer, on a huge and magnificent scale. The programme changes nightly, so under the arches outside you may well see piles of giant wooden camels, palm trees and Egyptian temples from last night’s performance of Aida waiting their next turn, while inside, a Spanish landscape with the marketplace of Seville might be hastily going up to receive Carmen and her toreador.
Now take the Via Mazzini, and when you reach the Via Cappello (named for Juliet’s family), turn right and cross the street into the courtyard of Juliet’s house at No. 23.
Juliet’s House
This little Gothic city palazzo once belonged to the Capulet (dal Cappello) family, and though it is not certain whether Juliet ever really lived here, its ivy-draped balcony is perfect for conjuring up a picture of Shakespeare’s young lovers meeting under cover of night:
Romeo: But soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!
Juliet: O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
The story of Romeo and Juliet was first told by Luigi da Porto in 1529, from whose book of stories Shakespeare got his plot. It was inspired by the terrible feuds of Veronese noble families in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, split between Guelph and Ghibelline political factions. Romeo’s family, the Montagues (Montecchi) supported one side and Juliet’s family, the other, so marriage between the two was obviously strictly forbidden. A bronze statue of Juliet stands in the courtyard, reflecting the ending to Shakespeare’s play, in which the fathers of the dead couple forget their differences, united by grief and tragedy, and Montague says:
I will raise her statue in pure gold;
That while Verona by that name is known,
There shall no figure at such rate be set
As that of true and faithful Juliet.
The inside of the house is small and has a few furnishings of the period. It shouldn’t take more than 15 or 20 minutes to visit.
Now turn right into the Via Cappello, and walk into the Piazza delle Erbe.
Piazza Delle Erbe
This was the site of the Forum in Roman times, but is now lined with medieval and Renaissance buildings. The column with the Lion of Saint Mark, symbol of the Venetian Republic, was erected in 1523 – the citizens of Verona had elected to become part of Venice’s territories in 1402, tired of being subjected to the rapacious and tyrannical leadership of ruling noble families. As its name suggests, this square was one of Verona’s marketplaces, and also the place where, at the end of the day, criminals were pelted with the rotten fruit and vegetables the traders hadn’t sold, as an hors d’oeuvre to their main punishment.
Now go under the archway half way up the square on your right (with your back to Juliet’s house) and into the Piazza dei Signori.
Piazza Dei Signori
The archway is hung with an enormous whalebone – one of the curiosities of medieval Verona. It takes you into the square from which the Lords, or Signori of Verona, ruled the city. To the left is the Renaissance Loggia del Consiglio (Council) and a (nineteenth century) statue of the great fourteenth century poet, Dante. Dante, who had been exiled from Florence for political reasons, was shown such generous hospitality in Verona that he dedicated his Paradiso to Cangrande della Scala, who ruled the city at the time. To the right is the twelfth century Palazzo della Ragione, or city hall. If you go through its archway halfway down the square, you’ll find yourself in its beautiful pink and white striped courtyard, with a stately outside staircase (similar to the one at the Doge’s Palace in Venice). Here, the Signori would receive their most important guests with a great deal of elaborate ceremony and fanfaring of trumpets. The entrance to the 84 metre Lamberti Tower is here (small fee; elevator) from which you can get a spectacular view of the city.
Back in the Piazza dei Signori, through another archway at the opposite end of the square to the whalebone, are the great della Scala tombs. These are unusual in being outside – obviously the family wanted everyone, not just churchgoers, to stand back and admire the monuments of these three medieval war dogs. They are shown on horseback above – pursuing their favourite occupation of waging war – and reclining in death below. the tomb of Dante’s patron, Cangrande, is built into the wall of the nearby church, and displays his signature emblem – crowned dogs to evoke his name, brandishing ladders (della Scala means “of the step”).
This is as much as most groups will have time for in Verona, so either retrace your steps back to the bus, or give your group some free time if your schedule allows. (If you have a special itinerary with more time here, you could now walk the group down to the Corso Cavour to the Castelvecchio (about 10 mins) – the della Scalas’ fortress, now an art museum – and splendid battlemented bridge, and back up the Via Roma to the Arena.)