Music and Romance Fill Verona’s Summer Air by Tim Bird
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There is a full moon over Verona’s magnificent Roman amphitheatre. A light breeze on the higher levels brings gentle relief to the gathered crowd, 25,000 strong, on this very warm July evening. The occupants of the more expensive seats, lined up in the pit of the arena where gladiators once confronted lions, look less comfortable in their Armani suits, loosening the collars of their shirts and shuffling their fancy Tod’s footwear.
There is a roar of “Bravo!” as this evening’s guest of honour, the President of the Republic of Italy, takes his seat, pursued by a posse of TV cameramen, then a subsiding murmur as the audience prepares for the performance. The sounds of the city are like a distant breath, effectively excluded by the ancient walls. A couple of bats swoop over the heads of the audience as the lights dim, the conductor takes up his baton, and the opening strains of Verdi’s Aida magnetize the crowd’s collective attention.
A lavish production of Aida is a regular feature on the programme – Carmen, Tosca and Nabucco are other favourites - of Verona’s annual Opera Festival, and the atmospheric setting of the Roman arena makes it an event rather than a mere performance. You don’t need to be an aficionado to be uplifted by its sheer spectacle. This is the city of Romeo and Juliet, and romance is in the open, democratising air of the Arena.
A Pleasant Calm
The Opera Festival, of which the Arena and the more intimate riverside Roman theatre are the showpiece venues, brings the visitors flocking through July and August. Between performances, many of the massive theatrical props are stored in the adjacent café-lined Piazza Bra, and tourists pose for photos against a surreal backdrop of Egyptian sphinxes and giant steel-clad warriors.
Yet even when the hotels are fully booked and the festival is in full swing, the city never seems as choked as that other beauty of the Veneto region, Venice, barely an hour’s drive away. Dreamy faces in larger numbers than usual gaze into the windows of the design shops – everything from Gucci to Bulgar - along the Via Mazzini, and the waiters have their work cut out at the tables outside the Antico Caffe Dante in the Piazza del Signore. But the shafts of sunlight stabbing the pink marble of Verona’s medieval streets and squares, and playing on the water of the Adige river snaking through the city, illuminate a pleasant calm.
The Roman Ponte della Pietra, reconstructed several times over the centuries in its original stone, never seems crammed with jostling tour groups, and the cool caverns of Verona’s showpiece churches, including the Basilica of San Zeno Maggiore, the Gothic Sant’Anastasia, the church of San Lorenzo, the Cathedral and the church of Santo Stefano, retain a lofty dignity. From the viewing platform at the top of the Torre dei Lamberti, the classical Italian ochre patchwork of the rooftops, across to the Ponte Scaligero and the Castelvecchio fortress, is similarly soothing.
Legendary Lovers
On the other hand, the cobbled square beneath the balcony at Casa di Giuletta is rarely deserted, and the right bronze breast of Juliet’s statue has been rubbed shiny by the caresses of men subscribing to the myth that this gesture heralds the arrival of a new lover. The walls of the courtyard and the approaching arch are smothered with gaudy romantic graffiti, scribbled in honour of Shakespeare’s factually suspect tragedy. Although Juliet’s supposed tomb is another of the city’s less compelling and historically dubious attractions, it’s a hit with the tour groups. In fact, the feuding families of the Montagues, or Montecchi, and Capulets immortalised by Shakespeare really did exist, even if the eponymous protagonists of his play probably did not.
There is no doubt, however, about the authenticity of other regional attractions, namely the crisp white wines of Soave and their smooth red Valpolicella cousins. The centres of both regions are easy excursions from Verona, and your rewards may include a pleasant rural lunch and some leisurely vinicultural research. Drop into the bustling Bottega dei Vini just off the Via Mazzini in the city centre to sample any one, or several, of the wines offered by the generous glass and displayed in overwhelming variety on a blackboard behind the bar.
Italy is almost synonymous with fine food too, of course, and you can eat very well in Verona, even if some of the local specialities, such as horsemeat and gnocchi, or potato dumplings, may not fit the cliché image of pasta and pizza. Excellent pasta and pizza of various kinds are naturally also widely available. But for a marvellous Italian feast to remember, book a table at the solicitous and welcoming Ristorante La Torretta in Piazza Broilo (tel. 045 8010099). The meat dishes, including duck and lamb, are superb and the tiramisu transcends its huge dose of calories. And if the names Soave and Valpolicella have never really rung any glamorous bells for you, this is the place to cast aside your prejudices.
For details about, and bookings for Opera Festival performances in Verona’s Arena, visit www.arena.it