Historic Cities · Italy
Verona through the ages
Verona is the largest city in the region of Veneto in Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city municipality in the region and in northeastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona covers an area of 1,426 km2 (550.58 sq mi) and has a population of 714,310 inhabitants.
Verona in AD 50
Roman Verona
Verona in 50 sits as a compact Roman colonia on a grid of cardines and decumani, its forum at the future Piazza Erbe and an amphitheatre newly finished outside the city. The walk moves from the city’s river crossings and gates through markets, workshops and public colonnades to the theatre on the hill and final views over the Adige bend.
Rooflines of low two‑storey houses, red clay tiles and pale tufa or brick facades, rise behind arcaded public buildings and stone city walls. The Adige threads green and brown through the town, spanned by a single great stone bridge; the amphitheatre sits as a white ring outside the grid. Streets are narrow, paved with stone or packed earth, shaded by colonnades and heavy awnings where merchants display pottery, cloth and produce.
The walk — 22 streets, squares and views
San Pietro Hill Approach → Ponte Pietra → Adige River Quay → Riverside Warehouses → Porta Leoni → Cardo Maximus → Decumanus Maximus → Forum (Piazza Erbe site) → Basilica of the Forum → Macellum Market → …
Step inside — 14 interiors
Quay Portorium Office · Riverside Lower Store · Porta Leoni Guardroom · Draper's Taberna · Bakers' Oven Hall · Colonnaded Forum Portico · Basilica Central Nave · Macellum Covered Market Hall · Bronze Smith's Workshop · Domus Atrium with Frescoes · Stagehouse and Painted Scaenae · Backstage Dressing Rooms · Arena and Vaulted Galleries · Forecourt Vomitorium Entrance
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Verona.
Verona in 1340
Scaliger Verona
Verona in 1340 is a compact, fortified river city at the height of Scaliger rule, its walls and bridges recently strengthened and its courts alive with patronage and rivalry. The walk passes markets, crenellated palaces and tomb-shrines, the busy Adige quays, and the lanes and houses long linked to the Montecchi and Cappelletti memory later taken up by poets.
Red clay roof tiles crowd low stone and brick palaces topped with crenellations and wooden hoardings; narrow lanes open to sunlit market squares. The Adige flows green and swift under successive arches of Roman and medieval bridges, flanked by timbered wharves and stone quays. White marble Gothic canopies and scalloped niches mark the Scaliger tombs and church fronts, while bell towers and the far castle silhouette puncture the skyline.
The walk — 22 streets, squares and views
Castel San Pietro View → Porta Borsari → Piazza Bra → Arena Exterior → Via Postumia → Piazza delle Erbe → Torre dei Lamberti → Piazza dei Signori → Santa Maria Antica → Scaliger Tombs → …
Step inside — 15 interiors
Porta Borsari Guardroom · Arena Stone Passage · Belfry Chamber of Lamberti · Audience Chamber of the Signori · Nave of Santa Maria · Cansignorio's Tomb Canopy · Cappelletti Family Hall · Merchants' Covered Loggia · Riverside Warehouse · Fish Market Arcade · Stagehouse of the Roman Theatre · Bridge Tower Guardroom · Great Hall of the Lords · Castle Chapel · Nave of San Zeno
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Scaliger.
Verona in 1600
Venetian Verona
Verona in 1600 is a prosperous provincial city governed from Venice, where new bastioned works and old Roman stones meet. The walk follows the river and the market heart past painted palazzi, river quays busy with wool and silk bales, medieval towers and Scaliger monuments to a high hillside view over the Adige.
The city’s silhouette is a tight jumble of Roman masonry, brick bell towers and crenelled Scaliger stone punctuated by the rounded bulk of the Arena. Many palazzi display painted façades and trompe-l’oeil cornices; narrow streets open into lively markets. The Adige bisects the town with stone bridges and lined quays where small barges moor. Venetian bastions and gates of Sanmicheli punctuate the outer ramparts, giving a compact, fortified profile against the plain.
The walk — 22 streets, squares and views
South Approach Road → Porta Nuova → Bastioned Walls → Piazza Bra and Arena → Porta Borsari → Piazza delle Erbe → Piazza dei Signori → Torre dei Lamberti → Palazzo della Ragione → Arche Scaligere → …
Step inside — 12 interiors
Arena's Sand-Floored Circle · Gran Guardia Assembly Hall · Erbe Market Loggia · Podesta's Audience Hall · Lamberti Bell Chamber · Sala del Consiglio · Casa Cappello Painted Salon · Sottoriva Merchants' Counting Room · Giusti Upper Cypress Terrace · Castelvecchio Armory · Adige Silk-Throwing Mill · San Zeno Basilica Nave
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Verona.
More cities to walk
London · York · Bath · Oxford · Cambridge · Edinburgh · Glasgow · Dublin
Castles of Europe · Landmarks of Europe · create your own walk.