Verona

Visiting Verona is a dive into the ancient emotions of a city that, even with a constant and modern expansion, preserves all the values of the splendid medieval and Renaissance ages.

"There is no world outside these walls..." Shakespeare was a poet, but that sentence summarize the real tourists' impression once in town.

The tragic love story between Romeo and Juliet that Shakespeare set in the city under the rule of the Della Scala family, makes it one of the favourite destinations of couples and romantic tourists. In the historical centre you will experience a quiet and relaxing atmosphere, marked by the river Adige which crosses the city shaping - with an impressive system of bridges – a large and soft "S".

Summer might be the best time to visit Verona, spending a night to enjoy a stunning opera in the local Arena. This Roman amphitheatre can seat 15000 people and some of the best artists in the world stage unforgettable theatrical representations, that must be attended at least once in your life!

Verona is one of the oldest and most beautiful Italian cities: it counts about 250000 inhabitants and can be considered the biggest city in the Veneto region, just after Venice. Located nearby the Lake Garda, on the river Adige's banks, at the foot of the Venetian Prealps, it boasts a very good climatic position. Verona is at the centre of the main national and international ways of communication: this is the reason why it has always been an important trading centre, also thanks to the good local industrial and agricultural production.

We do not have certain information about the origins of the name, but the first historic news about Verona dated back to the III century BC, when it was inhabited by the Venetians. The city became a Roman colony in 89 BC, some of the busiest Roman streets passed for Verona, indeed: Claudia Augusta, Postumia, Gallica. During the barbaric invasions, Theodoric settled in Verona is kingdom in Verona and built a sumptuous castle on top of San Pietro Hill. Even Berengario, elected King of Italy, chose Verona as his own residence. During the Middle Ages Verona became a free commune and reached the maximum splendour under the rule of the Della Scala family.

After a brief domination by the Visconti and Carraresi families, in 1405 the city gave itself up the the Republic of Serenissima. The rule of Venice lasted about four-hundred years, until the French invasion in 1797. With the Treaty of Campo Formio (October 1797), Napoleon gave Verona and most of the lands nearby to Austria.

Under the Austrian domination, Verona was one of the Quadrilatero's strongholds (the Quadrilatero was the defensive system of the Austrian Empire in the Lombardy-Venetia, which connected the fortresses of Peschiera, Mantua, Legnago and Verona between the Mincio, the Po and Adige Rivers). In 1866, a plebiscite linked up Verona with the Kingdom of Italy.