Where to stay in Verona: the best areas and hotels

Piazza delle Erbe has been Verona's market square since it was the Roman forum. Today the stalls sell fruit and souvenirs under white umbrellas, café tables fill the edges and the Torre dei Lamberti climbs above it all. Juliet's House is a few steps down Via Cappello, the courtyard thick with visitors, and the Gothic tombs of the Scaligeri lords are just behind the square.

This is the heart of the medieval city and its most romantic address. A luxurious hotel occupies an 18th-century palazzo right on the corner of the piazza. An elegant five-star on Corso Porta Borsari is built around Roman ruins and keeps traces of its 14th-century past. Nearby are a grand old five-star with a spa and an intimate 16-room hotel with a spa of its own. Evenings here are for aperitivo and aimless wandering.

Piazza Bra is one of the great Italian squares: a broad sweep of pavement cafés, a garden with a fountain and, filling one whole side, the Arena. The amphitheatre is nearly 2,000 years old and still packs in the crowds, for opera on summer nights and concerts the rest of the season. Via Mazzini, a marble-paved lane of fashion boutiques, leads from here to Piazza delle Erbe.

If you have tickets, stay close. An apartment hotel named after the prince in Romeo and Juliet sits a stone's throw from the Arena and Piazza Bra, a small relais faces Via Mazzini just 150 metres from the amphitheatre, and a comfortable hotel hides on a street parallel to the shopping drag. A family-run three-star in the old Filippini district, 200 metres from the Arena, keeps costs sensible. Book months ahead for festival dates.

Corso Porta Nuova is the broad, tree-lined avenue that runs from the city's Renaissance gate to the arches of Piazza Bra. It is the modern front door of Verona. Porta Nuova station, a little further south, has fast trains to Venice, Milan and Lake Garda, which makes this the natural base if you plan to explore.

You are outside the tourist core but only just. An upscale hotel four minutes' walk from the gate has Piazza Bra seven minutes away and a terrace and garden to retreat to. A large four-star near the station offers plenty of outdoor space, and a family-run hotel opposite Juliet's tomb, 500 metres from the Arena, lends out bicycles and has a small gym. Rooms tend to be bigger and cheaper than inside the walls.

At the top of the river loop, the Ponte Pietra carries you over the Adige on Roman arches to the far bank. The Roman theatre is cut into the hillside here, and steps (or a funicular) climb to Castel San Pietro for the panorama that makes everyone go quiet. To the east lies Veronetta, the university quarter, scruffier and more local, with cheap osterias and the Renaissance terraces of the Giusti Garden.

This is the calm side of Verona. An elegant 13th-century building in front of the bridge has rooms within 350 metres of the cathedral. Up the slope, a five-star retreat sits in the silence of an ancient olive garden, gazing over the town, yet only a few minutes on foot from the centre. A modern four-star near the old Porta Vescovo gate suits drivers and longer stays.

South of the station, Verona's exhibition centre hosts a calendar of big fairs, the wine world's annual gathering among them. The district around it is functional rather than pretty: wide roads, office blocks and a ring of contemporary hotels built for delegates.

For visitors with a car it solves a real problem, because the historic centre is a restricted traffic zone. Park here and take a bus or taxi in. One hotel has an indoor pool and a glass-domed winter garden, another has a free outdoor car park, a third runs a free shuttle to the centre, and one is only 2 km from the old town. Outside fair weeks, prices are among the lowest in the city.

Verona's airport lies south-west of the city at Villafranca, roughly 10 km from the centre and well placed for the motorway to Lake Garda. The hotels nearby are straightforward and good at logistics: one is about 1.5 km from the terminal, another runs a shuttle around the clock and has free parking, and a third has an indoor pool for unwinding after a delayed flight.

Use them for a late arrival or an early start, or as a cheap base for touring by car. For a weekend of sightseeing, the old town is where you want to be.

The hills north-west of Verona are Valpolicella, a landscape of pergola-trained vines, cherry orchards and stone villages that produces some of Italy's most serious red wine. Lake Garda is close on one side, the city on the other, and between them the roads wind past cellars that welcome visitors for a tasting.

The hotels are destinations in their own right. Just outside the city, a five-star villa filled with contemporary art and design stands in a private park with a striking outdoor pool. A 16th-century villa in the heart of the wine region has its own winery, gardens and pool, and a wine resort between Verona and the lake adds a thermal spa. You will need a car, and you may not want to use it much.