Page 151 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

VERONA І 149

Romeo and Juliet
The tragic story of Romeo and Juliet, two young lovers from rival families,
was written by Luigi da Porto of Vicenza in the 1520s and has inspired
countless dramas, films and ballets.
At the Casa di Giulietta (Juliet’s house), No. 23 Via Cappello, Romeo
is said to have climbed to Juliet’s balcony; in reality this is a restored
13th-century inn. Crowds throng to see the simple façade and stand on
the small marble balcony. The run-down Casa di Romeo is a few streets
away, in Via Arche Scaligeri.
The so-called Tomba di Giulietta is displayed in a crypt below
the cloister of San Francesco al Corso on Via del Pontiere. The stone
sarcophagus lies in an extremely atmospheric setting.
Both the Casa and the Tomba di Giulietta are open daily (in the
The so-called Casa di Giulietta afternoon only on Mondays). There is an admission charge.

R Duomo T Teatro Romano
Piazza Duomo. Tel 045 59 28 13. E Museo Archeologico
Open daily (pm only Sun). & 7 ^ Regaste Redentore 2. Tel 045 800 03 60.
∑ chieseverona.it Open 1:30–7:30pm Mon (all day if
Verona’s cathedral was begun public hol); 8:30am–7:30pm Tue–Sun.
in 1139 and is fronted by a The theatre closes early on perform-
magnificent Romanesque portal ance days. Closed 1 Jan, 25 & 26 Dec.
carved by Nicolò, one of the & 7
two master masons responsible This Roman theatre was built
for the façade of San Zeno (see in the 1st century BC; little
pp150–51). Here he sculpted the survives of the stage area, but
figures of Oliver and Roland, the semicircular seating area
two of Charlemagne’s knights, is largely intact. It offers great
whose exploits were much views over Verona: in the
celebrated in medieval poetry. foreground is the only one of
Alongside them stand three Roman bridges to have Statuary and formal hedges in the
evangelists and saints. To survived, though it was rebuilt Renaissance Giardino Giusti
the south there is a second after World War II.
Romanesque portal carved with A lift carries visitors from Y Giardino Giusti
Jonah and the Whale and with the Teatro Romano to the Via Giardino Giusti 2. Tel 045 803 40
comically grotesque caryatids. monastery above, now an 29. Open 9am–8pm daily (Oct–Mar:
The highlight of the interior is archaeological museum. to 7pm). Closed 25 Dec. & 7
Titian’s lovely Assumption (1535– The exhibits around the tiny This fine Renaissance garden was
40). Outside is a Romanesque cloister and in the old monks’ laid out in 1580. As with other
cloister in which the excavated cells include mosaics, pottery gardens of the period, there is a
ruins of earlier churches are visible. and glass. There is also a deliberate juxtaposition of
The 8th-century baptistry, or bronze bust of the first Roman nature and artifice: the formal
San Giovanni in Fonte (St John emperor, Augustus (63 BC–AD lower garden of clipped box
of the Spring), was built from 14), who in 31 BC overcame his hedges, gravel walks and potted
Roman masonry; the marble opponents to become ruler of plants contrasts with wilder,
font was carved in 1200. the Roman world. natural woods above.
John Evelyn, the English
author and diarist who visited
Verona in 1661, thought this the
finest garden in Europe.
R San Giorgio in Braida
Lungadige San Giorgio. Tel 045 834 02
32. Open daily. Closed during Mass.
This lovely domed Renaissance
church was begun in about
1530 by Michele Sanmicheli.
The altar includes the famous
Martyrdom of St George (1566)
by Veronese, and above the
west door is the Baptism of
Christ, usually attributed to
The imposing façade of Verona’s Duomo, Santa Maria Matricolare Tintoretto (1518–94).

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