Verona

Castelvecchio & San Zeno

The Scaligeri's fortress and their escape bridge at one end, Italy's finest Romanesque basilica at the other, and between them a genuinely residential western quarter where Verona stops performing for visitors.

Who it's for: Second-day visitors, anyone who came for architecture rather than balconies, museum people (Castelvecchio is a masterpiece of exhibition design as much as a collection), and travellers who want to eat where the Veronese eat.

Things to know

  • Castelvecchio is €9.00 full, €6.00 reduced, €2.00 for EU citizens aged 18–25, free under 18 and with a VeronaCard, €1.00 on the first Sunday of the month November to March. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00–18:00, last entry 17:15; closed Monday.
  • The Ponte Scaligero is free and always open — you do not need a museum ticket to walk it, and most people who pay to enter Castelvecchio never realise the bridge is separate.
  • San Zeno is a twenty-minute walk west from Piazza Brà or about ten from Castelvecchio along the river. It is the single most-skipped major sight in Verona, and the reason it stays pleasant.
  • San Zeno costs €4.00 single entry (€3.00 groups, €2.00 schools, free 0–11 and disabled visitors with a companion) and is on the four-church Chiese Vive circuit, whose combined price is published nowhere — buy at the first church you enter.
  • San Zeno closes at lunchtime on Sundays and religious holidays: it does not open until 13:00. Summer hours run 1 March–31 October, winter hours 1 November–28 February.
  • Verona Antiquaria fills Piazza San Zeno, Piazza Corrubbio and five surrounding streets on the first Sunday of every month except August — 200-plus dealers, free to walk. If your Sunday falls on it, come here rather than the centre.
  • The Venerdì Gnocolàr, Verona's carnival gnocchi festival and the climax of the city's Carnival since the sixteenth century, is a San Zeno street event. It falls on the Friday before Lent.
  • This is the one part of central Verona where restaurant closing days genuinely bite: San Bernardino and all'Organetto both shut Sunday, and Castelvecchio shuts Monday. A Sunday-Monday pair here needs planning.