Verona, Italy’s “City of Love,” is midway on the Trenitalia Frecciarossa train line between Venice and Milan…while Verona’s literary legacy lies between William Shakespeare and Dante Alighieri. Dante spent seven of his exiled years in Verona and, in the “The Inferno” which he authored in 1314, described the levels of hell. Verona was Shakespeare’s setting, in 1597, for the tragic romance of two young Italians named Romeo and Juliet.
“One might say those two writers proved that ‘love is hell?’” I joked to Chiara Zambianchi, general manager of the NH Collection Palazzo Verona Hotel.
“Sometimes…but it can also be paradise,” she answered. “Sometimes you suffer – sometimes you enjoy.”
There is no suffering for guests at the NH Collection Palazzo Verona. My heart was warmed to find a red box of “Romeo e Giulietta” loose leaf tea with a heart-shaped, stainless-steel strainer waiting in my room. NH Collection Hotels are artistically and historically embedded in local identity.
For instance, NH Venezia Murano Villa is in a former glass factory; while a former church is now NH City Life in Milan. NH Palazzo Verona is a 70-room, city-center hotel in a 13th century palace perched atop preserved, visible Roman ruins, and decorated by historic frescoes.
The guestroom’s windows and balcony – a corner suite – overlooked the Porta Borsari – the stately, first-century Roman gate to the old city. Around the corner is the Anfiteatro Arena – the ancient coliseum at which the closing ceremonies of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games will be staged. The scenic arena, also a popular opera venue, is beside Palazzo Barbieri, Verona’s neoclassical town hall in leafy Piazza Bra, an energetic area surrounded by a panorama of streetside restaurants offering an outdoor spritz, snack or meal.
Guisy Santoro, from behind Palazzo Verona’s front desk – and behind her designer spectacles – happily tolerated my attempt to speak Italian and then steered me out on a self-guided walking tour of Verona’s “romance trail.”
Touristy or not, I wadded through the full and festive Sunday streets to Juliet Capulet’s historic home, where visitors waited their turn to pose on her balcony. It is perched above the small courtyard where swarms of people of all ages and genders touched the right breast of Juliet’s life-sized statue for romantic luck. This was a gesture I did sheepishly and quickly, crying “mi dispiace:” begging the chuckling crowd not to “cancel me!”
But I went “all-in” when it came to the tradition of leaving a love note in Juliet’s mailbox – a tradition depicted in the 2010 movie “Letters to Juliet.” My wish, written in Italian, was to meet Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
By contrast, Romeo Montague’s villa, around the corner, was deserted by fans and, apparently, him. A plaque etched with Shakepere’s words read: “O, where is Romeo? I have lost myself…he is some other where…” But I did see the La Cantina di Romeo was busy with canoodling couples. (There is also a Osteria Giulietta i Romeo; and a Caffe Dante, for what it’s worth.)
At nightfall, I had dinner in the street fair setting of Piazza Erbe near the landmark Fountain of Madonna and under the 84-meter-high Torre dei Lamberti. Osteria Verona offered the opportunity to sample some “Piatti tipici Veronese:” dishes from Verona’s austere post WWII era, including polpette di cavallo (horse meatballs) and bigoli col musso (donkey ragu.)
After dinner, I walked over in the dark for a gourmet, artisanal dessert at Gelateria Impero, where I took a seat in front of the shop to savor the stracciatella and observe the old-world Piazza dei Signori. Next to me, the rumbling sound of conversation and the clinking of glasses and cutlery scored the scene as an extended family, at a long table, finished dinner under the canopies of Impero’s trattoria.
In the middle of the piazza, at the base of a towering pedestal topped by a statue of Dante Alighieri, a mandolin musician played music for tips. But also scoring the scene was the laughter and shouts of young children, presumably excused from the dinner table, pedaling their tiny bicycles under the moonlight across the piazza, past the other cafes, along the 13thcentury its church steps, past Palazzo del Capitanio, and under the square’s entrance archway with a whalebone hanging from it. They were racing and chasing each other in what I compared to a real-life, non-video game version of Assassin’s Creed. This, to me, was a romantic scene in its way.
After two days of strolling to tour the City of Love’s churches, museums, shops, wine bars, and architecturally-significant historical landmarks, I asked NH’s general manager Chiara Zambianchi what had been the most romantic moment of her life?
“There have been three,” she answered: “When my husband asked me to get married; and then the births of my two children. My life has been very full of love.”
Contact Michael Patrick Shiels at MShiels@aol.com His new book: Travel Tattler – Not So Torrid Tales, may be purchased via Amazon.com Hear his radio talk show on WJIM AM 1240 in Lansing weekdays from 9 am – noon.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Shiels: Romantic Verona is Italy’s ‘City of Love’ for history and literature lovers, too
Reporting by Michael Patrick Shiels, For the Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
