di Veronaround ®
mar - apr 2025 | A pearl of Lake Garda: San Vigilio
On the Veronese coast of Lake Garda stands a tiny village that dominates the western end of the bay of Garda: Punta San Vigilio.
It is a small promontory of which a portion is reserved for an equipped bathing lido (the famous "Baia delle Sirene"), a portion for a private residence (the discrete but enchanting Villa Guarienti di Brenzone, with its ancient citrus grove), and finally the enchanting marina, which boasts one of the most romantic cafés in the world. ​
The buildings overlooking the small port once belonged to a convent, where pilgrims could stop during their crossings: the small church of San Marco still exists, while the convent has become a small but exclusive hotel, which also saw kings and queens among its guests. ​
Punta San Vigilio can be reached by car and on foot (from Garda), but the truly unforgettable approach is by boat, from which already in the distance you can perceive the enchanted aura of this timeless place surrounded by cypresses, olive trees, lemons and oleanders.
jan - feb 2025 | The Sanctuary Our Lady of the Peace
In the eastern outskirts of Verona stands an imposing basilica dedicated to Peace, in memory of the end of the long European war that began in 1509 (League of Cambrai) and ended in 1559 (Peace of Cateau Combrésis), which had overwhelmed the Serenissima Republic and part of the Italian peninsula. ​
The architectural style is that of Michele Sanmicheli, who worked throughout the first half of the Venetian sixteenth century, especially in the military field, but also in many palaces and churches. The central plan of the building is typical of a context that still breathes humanism. Although the design of the dome has been modified over time, the interior of the temple is truly captivating, due to the spatial solutions that lead towards the sancta sanctorum, where the prodigious fresco of the Madonna della Pace is preserved. ​
But the Sanctuary also hides a treasure of votive offerings, among which the unusual donation from local nobles stands out today: an authentic five-meter-long Nile crocodile, stuffed and hung from the ceiling in a room in the parish adjacent to the church.​
nov - dec 2024 | The Teatro Filarmonico of Verona
The Verona Arena is internationally known for its summer opera festival, but not everyone knows that the real home of the Opera is the Philharmonic Theatre, which stands on the opposite side of the same square.
It is one of the most classic Italian theatres, begun in 1604 by the architect Curtoni, but interrupted for more than a century due to the plague and other adversities. The project was resumed at the beginning of the eighteenth century on the initiative of the noble Scipione Maffei, with the task entrusted to the famous Francesco Galli Bibiena. It was inaugurated in 1732 with the staging of "La Fida Ninfa", an Arcadian opera set to music by Vivaldi with a libretto by Maffei himself. ​
The same architectural complex includes the Sala Maffeiana (originally from 1600), the majestic classical pronaos which acts as an access, and the courtyard of the Maffeiano Museum, today a large classical epigraphic collection, one of the oldest public museums in the western world.
sept - oct 2024 | The ancient San Leonardo church
Driving up the Mezzane Valley, a few kilometers north-east of Verona, you arrive in one of the smallest municipalities on the Lessinia plateau: San Mauro di Saline.
The ancient name of the village is Salàin, perhaps of Cimbrian, Celtic or even Rhaetian origin. In more recent times the name of the patron saint was added to the local toponym. ​
The village is dominated by the heights of Monte Moro, among whose woods there is a clearing where you can find the main monument of the village, the ancient parish church of San Leonardo. The building, in Romanesque style, dates back to the end of the fourteenth century, and consists of three naves and three apses. The interior is embellished with a fourteenth-century fresco of the Madonna with San Leonardo. A large portico at the entrance gave shelter to pilgrims, but also to the shepherds of the area who went there to obtain protection for their livestock: some rings for tying the animals are still visible outside. ​
jul - aug 2024 | The bastion "delle Maddalene"
Even in the hottest months of the year, the city of Verona can boast some possibilities for visits to cool and unusual places, far from the crowded sites of the more touristy area.
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Thanks to recent restoration works, that of the Maddalene is the best preserved and usable of the approximately 15 sixteenth-century bastions that surround Verona and which mark a complex defensive system with even older gates, fortresses and castles.
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The work was commissioned by the Serenissima after the dramatic war against the League of Cambrai, the coalition of states that between 1509 and 1517 had seriously put the existence of the Serenissima at risk. Verona proved to be essential for its security, which is why the best military architects of the time were hired under the guidance of Francesco Maria della Rovere, to give the city of Verona modern and efficient defense tools. The bastion is, however, a technical and aesthetic emblem also thanks to the updates made by the Austrians in the nineteenth century.
may - june 2024 | By bicycle to the Sunday market of Zevio
Located just about 20 km south-east of Verona, the town of Zevio can be easily reached from the city by bicycle, following the Adige cycle path.
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Zevio is a historic center of ancient origins, developed around its castle and its ancient parish church. The history of the castle dates back to the time of the barbarian invasions, it developed at the time of the Scaligeri lordship, but its current appearance is due to the conversion into a patrician villa starting from the sixteenth century. Most of its rooms are used as town hall headquarters and for cultural events, but its historical pride is the basement, with the ancient kitchens and prisons, and the beautiful outdoor park surrounded by the moat-fishpond.
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Between the two main squares of the town and in the surrounding streets you can admire some prestigious buildings and various commercial activities, but this agricultural center is known above all for its large Sunday market, the largest in the province of Verona. Textiles and various types of objects dominate, but the fruit, vegetable and gastronomic offer is also very relevant, allowing you to have lunch on site or organize an easy picnic on the banks of the nearby Adige river.
mar-apr 2024 | Villa Bernini-Buri of Verona and its park
Villa Bernini-Buri, one of the most unexpected aristocratic residences in Verona, ideally turns 450 years old.
The exceptional nature of this place is due first of all to the fact of being in the closest outskirts of Verona, a few minutes from the historic center, but above all to the surprising extension of its park of more than 13 hectares, completely open to the public, with vast lawn areas and woodlands on the banks of the Adige. ​
The property has been documented since 1574, but the evolution is mainly seventeenth-century, by will of Count Alessandro Buri, and with the project of Domenico Brugnoli, nephew of the more famous Michele Sanmicheli. The villa has rare eighteenth-century frescoes that tell of the summer holidays of the Veronese aristocracy, including gambling, music and other entertainment: the swan song of the Serenissima, described and handed down unconsciously at the time and place in which it was lived.
The history of the villa and the family crosses the history and the agrarian and social evolution up to the "connivances" during the fascist regime and to bitter episodes at the end of the War. ​
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jan-feb 2024 | The Palazzo dei Mutilati in Verona (1934-2024)
A very special building, in the heart of Verona, turns ninety: the Palazzo "del Sacrificio", also known as the Palazzo dei Mutilati e Invalidi di Guerra. ​
The building, inaugurated in September 1934, had the function of hosting offices and clinics for the Mutilated and Invalids of the First World War, but also of hosting meetings and celebrations in homage to the veterans. The promoting association, ANMIG, had already been founded in 1917, but in Verona, as in many Italian cities, the myth of the Great War and its heroes became such only with the seizure of power by Fascism, whose rise had also been supported by army units, who found in Mussolini one of the few politicians willing to understand their frustrations and disappointments.
The building, designed by the Banterle brothers, is part of the so-called "littorio style", the most intimately Italian version of twentieth-century rationalism, because it finds inspiration from classical architecture, but without frills and with a typically martial clarity.
One of the reasons why this building is truly unique is that both the exterior and its interior have remained unchanged in these 90 years, as well as its function: the building still houses the ANMIG, but today it is also a place dedicated to history and education, and congresses and opera concerts are held there regularly.
2023 | The water fortress of Peschiera, UNESCO heritage
Peschiera del Garda celebrated in 2022 its first 5 years of recognition of the title of World Heritage Site conferred by Unesco in 2017.
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It is a very special town due to its geographical position: in fact, it rises on some islets at the point where the waters of the lake flow into the effluent, the river Mincio. Therefore, between the lake and the river, the Roman "Arilica" was born, important for commercial exchanges along the internal waterways; a position that also became strategic on a military level when the lake began to take the form of a frontier between the late medieval lordships first, and the states of Venice and Milan during the Renaissance. The current appearance, of a large water fortress characterized by mighty ramparts and two beautiful sixteenth-century gates, dates back to the very moment of maximum friction between the Republic of Venice and its neighbours, not only Milan, but also Austria, following the war against the League of Cambrai (1509-17).
After having been an Austrian stronghold during the years of the Risorgimento, Peschiera experienced a long oblivion, until its reawakening as an international tourist resort.
2022 | Madonna della Corona, the sanctuary in the rocks
Spiazzi, a hamlet of Ferrara di Monte Baldo, is a small mountain village in the province of Verona, which hosts one of the most beautiful sanctuaries in Italy. The "Madonna della Corona" rises between rocky crevices, clinging to the steep rock on the Adige Valley, in the place where a hermitage already stood in the Middle Ages. Starting from the fourteenth century, under the rule of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, the Sanctuary began to receive donations from local nobles and to experience an unstoppable process of enlargement of its spaces. A great impetus for the renovation of the building came after 1522, the year in which, according to a legend, a miraculous statue of the Pietà appeared mysteriously "flown" from the island of Rhodes, a former Venetian dominion which was conquered in that very year by the Turks.
The current aspect of the Sanctuary is mostly nineteenth-century neo-Gothic, a style that suits the surrounding environment, made of rocks, peaks and woods, creating a fascinating, evocative and very spiritual union between nature and architecture.
2021 | San Giorgio di Valpolicella, "Inganna-Poltron"
San Giorgio, a hamlet of S. Ambrogio, is considered one of the most beautiful villages in Italy. The distinctive feature is the use of local stone and marble in all architectural aspects of the town, as well as the splendid panoramic position on the Conca d'Oro and Lake Garda. The name "Inganapoltròn" derives, according to most, from the steep position. According to others by the name of goddess Inanna.
The heart of the village is the Romanesque church , built in the 12th century with material recycled from a Roman temple. The temple, dedicated to the Sun and the Moon, as evidenced by some inscriptions, was the spiritual and political center of the Arusnati, a local population of Rhaetian origin.
In the Lombard age the church was also given administrative functions, and during the Crusades it became a milestone of the Templar order in the Veronese area.
The interiors are sober, but the zoomorphic capitals of the cloister, the carved decorations in the altar, and the well-preserved Romanesque frescoes are particularly remarkable.