Verona is a famous city around the world especially thanks to two main things, the amphitheater Arena and the famous "Romeo and Juliet" drama. Thousands and thousands of people have been arriving every year in Verona to visit the city and see the well-known balcony from which she used to show herself.
But these are certainly not the only attestations of the city's glorious past. There are a lot of monuments to see and visit for the numerous tourists, but also churches and museums.
The city, in fact, has been inhabited since the prehistory period, there was a series of population living in this territory, and each of them leaved behind a lot of signs and vestiges of their passage, and making the city really full with history and stories.
Walking for example from the long Corso Porta Nuova down to the Portoni del Bra', beyond the beautiful battlements and the walls you could already feel the impression that shortly you will be able to admire invaluable preciousness, centuries and centuries of art and history. In Italy Verona is second only to Rome as for the noteworthy presence of roman ruins so well-conserved.
The city has a complex structure, but two main walls accentuate the division between the Roman part and the modern part (until the second half of 19th century): from one side the roman walls that surround the heart of the city between porta Borsari, porta Leoni and the walls of Gallieno, from the other side the so-called internal ring road with some forts from the Renaissance era (completed under the Austrian occupancy).
Arrived in Piazza Bra' you can immediately admire the wonderful Roman amphitheater, the Arena, going on you can also find the Roman Theatre, even more ancient than the amphitheater, right at the foot of the hill of Castel San Pietro. And then the Ponte Pietra ("Stone Wall Bridge"), built up on the Adige River, where the ancient inhabitants used to ford the river. And again the Arco dei Gavi (Gavi Arch), one of the city's richest families, celebrated right with this arch. All these monuments are in a perfect preservation stage, marbles are still luminous, making the tourist live the dream to be in a fantastic place, totally immersed in history.
Beautiful to see are also the monumental gateways of Porta Borsari and Porta Leoni, once built up to protect the city and now ready to welcome the numerous visitors.
Parts of walls and streets can still be seen with a simple walk along Corso Cavour, Corso Portoni Borsari, and Corso Santa Anastasia which leads you along the ancient Roman via Postumia or the Decumano Massimo, which ended up in the Roman Forum, now Piazza Erbe. But you can also see inscriptions, tombstones, mosaics, decorated lintels, parts of roman statues.
During the rule of the Scaligeri the city transformed itself. Beautiful monuments such as the Castlelvecchio, the Ponte Scaligero, the Cangrande's Palace, and the Domus Mercatorum in the Piazza Erbe have been built up. But also many others architectural beauties that leave everybody breathless.
Wonderful paintings and beautiful palaces from the Renaissance decorate the most important streets and squares.
These are just some of the wonderful things you can admire in Verona. And don't forget that this city is also famous for the traditional generosity and courtesy of its people, for their commitment in the voluntary and social fields.
Verona is certainly a city and a whole territory full of surprises to discover!
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