Top Rated Attractions in Mantua

Verona's Studio la Città has been around since 1969, proudly displaying modern classics by a variety of artists. The gallery moved to a larger location in 2007, allowing it space to expand the scope of its offerings to include concerts, performances and more. Visit the website to see its full program.

The city of Verona has many interesting sites that a tourist cannot simply miss out on. The best way to ensure that you visit all these interesting places is to take a guided tour arranged by Veronality. They offer guided tours of the city, depending upon what interests you the most. Take a bike tour and enjoy the riverside, beautiful trails, and natural beauty of the city. The walking tour is nothing short of fun as well. Oenophiles should definitely take up the wine tasting tour of the city. Their expert guides will make sure that your experience is full of intrigue and amusement.

Located outside the Verona city walls, this historic Roman amphitheater was built in the first half of the first century. It was designed to accommodate more than 30,000 spectators and hosted many number of events over the years, among them plays, battles, games, and even jousting competitions during the Middle Ages. Today, the excellent acoustics and sheer size of the Verona Arena lend themselves to grandiose operatic performances. In 1913, the amphitheater staged Verdi's Aida in honor of the Italian composer's 100th birthday, its first production of the 20th century. At once a grand venue and an ancient architectural jewel, the Verona Arena should certainly not be missed, be it for a night on the town or a cultural day tour.

No one going to Verona could justify missing out on a visit to this Romanesque church that epitomizes the city: San Zeno Maggiore. Enlarged in the Medieval Period after the earthquake of 1117 with the addition of a tufa span on the West, the church's original structure dates back to the 9th century. The ornate façade is made of tuff, divided by thin pilaster strips, with a triangular pediment crossed by a gallery of mullioned windows with two lights in red marble. Featured at the center is the "Wheel of Fortune," the large rosette dating back to the 13th century. Also, scenes of Saint Zeno's life and miracles are painted in the lunette, while wooden scenes from the Old and New Testament are depicted in the 48 panels.

Castelvecchio was founded in the mid-14th century at the behest of Cangrande II della Scala as a princely residence with a fortress. It was called the Castle of San Martino in Aquaro because it incorporated a small church dedicated to the saint. Over the centuries, it continued to have military functions - with the domination of Venice. It was the seat of an academy with Napoleon, and two new wings were added to the building. Then, with the Austrians, it played a strategic role in the fortification of Verona. In the 1920s, Verona municipality moved medieval and modern art sections from the Civic Museum to Castelvecchio. The present layout of the building and its exhibitions are the result of a major rehabilitation and construction between 1956 and 1973 by the architect Carlo Scarpa.

The civic natural history museum is in the 16th century Palazzo Pompei, a masterpiece by Sanmicheli. The building was given to the town in 1854 by Count Alessandro Pompei for it to become an exhibition site for scientific and ethnographic collections, and for renaissance artifacts and art collections. While there was a time when the natural collections were few in comparison to the rest, the collection grew quickly with the passage of time. There were problems of space and it was only in 1936 that the art collections were moved to other buildings. Palazzo Pompei became an exhibition space exclusively for natural science. At present, there are 19 rooms in which you can see more than 2,000,000 examples of the world's animals, plants, geology, paleontology and prehistory. The fossilized fish from Bolca are a major attraction. They are contained in a weir which is 45,000,000 years old.