In my most recent post, I shared with you the destinations that you could travel to for a very fair price on Reading Week. One of the places was Verona, a small city in the north of Italy, which I actually visited myself already.
In case you follow my suggestion or think about visiting one day, I’ll tell you all about my 72-hour itinerary – I spent three days in the charming Italian town, and I even had time to go to Venice as well.
Day 1
We were lucky enough to be situated right in the city centre and next to one of the must-see sights of Verona: Porta Borsari – a beautiful ancient Roman gate.
Close by there are a lot of cafes that you can sit in and have a cappuccino with a pastry (is there a better way to start the day?)
You can walk everywhere in Verona, therefore 72 hours is more than enough to see the city and you don’t even need to rush. One of the most famous landmarks is Arena di Verona: an amphitheatre still used today for performances such as operas and concerts. We actually went inside as the price for students is lower and history aside, the best part is the amazing view you can have of the city from the top of the arena.
Most of the time, in our case, we strolled around the city and explored the narrow streets. Besides the Arena, we didn’t enter any other monument or attraction, just because we were trying to have a good time but save money. However, I do think it’s worth paying to enter some of the places.
After the Arena, we headed to a very famous place in Verona – Casa di Giulietta (or Juliet’s house) – from Romeo and Juliet! As you walk into the little square you will see love notes glued to the wall. You can pay to enter the house and go to the famous balcony yourself, or you can always look from the outside and see people lining up to touch Juliet’s right breast – the legend says it brings luck to the ones who do it. (And yes, I did it!)
We then crossed the bridge to the other side of the river to have a rather different view of the city and try a local wine. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the streets and ended up eating pasta at home to save some money.
Day 2
Venice!!
Once again, we did have a list of places we definitely wanted to see, but in general, we spent the day discovering new places as we were walking – we wanted the surprise effect and the pleasure of discovering a place without a defined route.
One of the landmarks in our list was Ponte di Rialto. We were able to get there without following directions and it was beautiful. There are no big roads or anything, the city is made of bridges and canals and every view is different.
You will most likely be asked a lot of times if you want to join for a gondola ride. However, it is expensive and you can always get on a boat bus or taxi which will probably be less than a half of the gondola price.
The only square in Venice is huge and it’s called ‘Piazza San Marco’, and a 5-minute walk from there is the Bridge of Sighs – a must-see!
Two places we really wanted to visit were Burano and Murano, which are beautiful areas you can only reach by boat. As we had little less than a day in Venice we didn’t have time to go there but I would definitely suggest doing so. Simply look it up on Google and you will get why I say that.
Day 3
On the third day, we had a flight to catch so once again we were wandering around the narrow streets and the main beautiful squares – Piazza Bra and Piazza delle Erbe – as well as exploring the beautiful architecture.
However, if you get enough time these are the other places you HAVE to visit in Verona:
- Lake Garda
- Castelvecchio
- Ponte di Castelvecchio
- Torre dei Lamberti
- Castel San Pietro
Hope you take a few days to visit this lovely town and most of all, that you truly enjoy it.
Beijinho
Maria