A walk along the city walls, past Roman ruins and a night alone with Juliet

The austere adventure one can experience by following the many concentric walls – which were instrumental in Verona’s inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List – is also characterised by stone. Once you’ve crossed the Ponte di Pietra (mind the rings that were once used to tether the ‘furie’ – a tribute to the floating mills), setting off from the Roman Theatre – which was once a quarry – and the Archaeological Museum, you climb towards the Habsburg barracks and fortress of Castel San Pietro to take in the views and panoramas of the city with the second-highest number of Roman ruins after the ‘caput mundi’: from the Hortus dei Giusti, you can see the lantern tower of the Basilica of Santo Stefano and the dome of San Giorgio in Braida; then, as you continue climbing, you can make out the 14th-century city walls erected by Cangrande della Scala, who was also responsible for the extraordinary funerary complex of the Arche Scaligere. The Parco delle Mura is a romantic spot from which to listen to the ceaseless roar of the Adige and to admire the whole of Veronetta. Once back down, you can follow the trail to the archaeological site of Porta dei Leoni, dating from the period between 49 and 42 BC, which formed the south-eastern entrance to the Roman city walls. And, having admired it in the Castelvecchio Civic Museum – whose restoration and refurbishment he oversaw exactly 70 years ago – Carlo Scarpa’s unmistakable architectural style can be appreciated with pleasure at the headquarters of the Banca Popolare di Verona. Dinner can only be at Ristorante Maffei, not only for the excellent quality of the cuisine, but also because it is situated directly above the Roman Capitolium, indeed right on top of the Temple of the Capitoline Triad, of which it preserves columns, statue pedestals, plinths and floors, as if time had stood still two millennia ago. But can one ignore Juliet on a trip to Verona? The Montagues and Capulets really did exist, as did the medieval courtyard onto which the legendary balcony overlooks. Perhaps even William Shakespeare, the author of the tragedy, now that its worldwide fame has made it one of Italia’s most visited sites, might well prefer to book Room 35 at the Relais Il Balcone di Giulietta and enjoy, from 7 pm until 9 am the following morning, the exclusive pleasure of staying right opposite the little loggia that inspired the Bard to write the most famous love story in the history of literature. When all is quiet, in fact, it is hard not to succumb to the notion that this romance might actually have existed.