Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR EURO
VeronaCard
(
www.veronacard.it
; 2/5 days €15/20) , available at tourist sights as well as tobacconists,
grants access to most major monuments and churches, plus unlimited use of town buses.
Museo di Castelvecchio
( 045 806 26 11; Corso Castelvecchio 2; adult/reduced €6/4.50, or with VeronaCard; 8.30am-7.30pm
Tue-Sun, 1.30-7.30pm Mon; )
Bristling with battlements along the River Adige, Castelvec-
chio was built in the 1350s by Cangrande II. The fortress was so severely damaged by Na-
poleon and then WWII bombings that many feared it was beyond repair. But instead of
erasing the past with restorations, Carlo Scarpa reinvented the building, constructing
bridges over exposed foundations, filling gaping holes with glass panels, and balancing a
statue of Cangrande I above the courtyard on a concrete gangplank.
Scarpa's revived Castelvecchio makes a fitting home for Verona's largest museum, with
a diverse collection of statuary, frescoes, jewellery, medieval artefacts, and paintings by
Pisanello, Giovanni Bellini, Tiepolo and Veronese.
MUSEUM
Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore
(
www.chieseverona.it
;
Piazza San Zeno; adult/child €2.50/free, combined Verona church ticket €6 or with
VeronaCard; 8.30am-6pm Tue-Sat, 12.30-6pm Sun Mar-Oct, 10am-1pm & 1.30-5pm Tue-Sat, 12.30-5pm
Sun Nov-Feb)
A masterpiece of Romanesque architecture, the striped brick and stone basilica
was built in honour of the city's patron saint. Enter through the flower-filled cloister into
the nave - a vast space lined with 12th- to 15th-century frescoes. Painstaking restoration
has revived Mantegna's 1457-59
Majesty of the Virgin
altarpiece, painted with such aston-
ishing perspective that you actually believe there are garlands of fresh fruit hanging behind
the Madonna's throne.
BASILICA
Duomo
( 045 59 28 13;
www.chieseverona.it
;
Piazza Duomo; adult/reduced €2.50/2, or with VeronaCard;
10am-5.30pm Mon-Sat, 1.30-5.30pm Sun Mar-Oct, 10am-1pm & 1.30-5pm Tue-Sat, 1.30-5pm Sun Nov-
Feb)
Verona's 12th-century cathedral is a striking, striped Romanesque building, with bug-
eyed statues of Charlemagne's paladins Roland and Oliver, crafted by medieval master
Nicolo
̀
, on the west porch. Nothing about this sober facade hints at the extravagant 16th- to
17th-century frescoed interior with angels aloft amid trompe l'œil architecture. At the left
CATHEDRAL
