Top Rated Attractions in Verona

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.

This pedestrian-only shopping district of Corso Porta Borsari begins with a grandiose arch built by the Romans. This ancient sun-bleached wall was built in the third century as part of the ancient city's "decumano" gate. Upon passing through these imposing walls one is greeted with a narrow street lined with multitudinous boutiques selling hard to find local products in addition to gourmet restaurants, wine bars, and cafés such as Caffè Tubino. The atmosphere is vibrant while retaining a small-town feel, which makes this historic street the perfect place to take a stroll and drink in fair Verona.

Gardaland is the best and largest theme park in Italy. There are many rides which have contributed to its success including: a journey amongst the pharaohs in "Valley of Kings" and a trip round a pirate village in "The Buccaneers" You can also visit the "Village of the Elves" and venture through the uncultivated jungle. However, the best rides are aimed at the bravest visitors: start with a terrifying free-fall from a height of 40 meters in "Space Vertigo", then wander through a Russian mountain range in "Blue Tornado" and finally explore some more traditional mountains in 'Magic Mountain'. There are hundreds of other attractions as well as live shows. The park which has been carefully put together, right down to the finishing touches, is also houses a number of restaurants and gift shops. Note that hours vary according to the season.

The Giardino Giusti contains all the features of a typical Renaissance garden: geometrical layout of flowerbeds and hedgerows, fountains, grottos, mask, mythological statues, avenues of cypresses and a maze. Mozart, Goethe, kings and emperors have all visited this garden, which, for four centuries has been one of the most beautiful and well-visited in the whole of the Veneto. The garden, designed by Agostino Giusti as a setting for the villa which bears his name, is made up of three sections: a lawn, a wooded hill with a ravine and cliff and landscaped terraces with a belvedere.

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.