Joel Welch
When I first visited Verona in late summer of 1993, it was somewhat of a surprise…but then, it would have been. Honestly, I hadn’t given this northern Italian city on the Adige River any real thought; I just happened to be down the road 40 km in Vicenza for three months doing some aviation work for NATO as a US Navy Officer. From my high school Shakespeare, I remembered that Verona had served as the backdrop for the play, “Romeo and Juliet”, but I suspected it was just a convenient spot to drop that story into….The Bard could have placed the love story anywhere. Indeed it has been since….notable examples being ”West Side Story”, Jet Li’s “Romeo Must Die”, clearly not filmed in Verona but rather up and down the US west coast to include Oakland…let that sink in…and even “The Godfather”…all adaptions based on the same premise of tragic lovers wedged in between two warring families. And then there is perhaps the greatest film version from 1968, Romeo and Juliet by Franco Zeffirelli, which stayed close to Verona but only used the Cliff’s Notes of dialogue from the original play….more about Zeffirelli later. So when I strolled through the Veronese streets and came upon the “actual” balcony that Juliet stood while being pined to by Romeo, I had my suspicions that Verona was trying to pull one over on us unsuspecting tourists and amateur romantics. The thing is, Italy is chock full of cities that have “real” history and culture to crow about….you really don’t need to concoct anything here and while Verona does a stunning business doing so, it has so much more to offer in the way of culture, history and pageantry. I realized that way back in 1993 but it took until now to revisit my discovery.
Twenty-five years later, I am exiting the Frecciarossa High Speed Train at the Verona Train Station from Venice and moving north into the City Center and to what I think is the highlight of Verona…. the beautiful jewel within a jewel encrusted city. The Verona Arena was built in the First Century by the Romans and its locally mined limestone core structure, minus most of its finished adornment from the original structure, is still intact…much of the original marble being “mined” for later projects which was the custom. It is a large arena, second only to the Roman Coliseum and with its current seating, can accommodate up to 15,000. It dominates Verona and is still a very useful feature of the city….it will even be the venue of the closing ceremonies of the 2026 Winter Olympics of Milan/Cortina d’ Ampezzo.
But here’s the thing…..what really sets Verona and the Arena apart is as the ultimate setting for Opera…..an outdoor Opera season spanning mid-June through early September that has been going on continuously, with the exception of World War II, since 1913….and which attracts the greatest names in the opera world. The Arena, being blessed with outstanding acoustics, has hosted musical performances as early as the Renaissance.
So this was my reason, 25 years later, for my return to Verona….no, not Romeo and Juliet, but something much more tangible and special and SO Italian…..to experience one of the great cultural events in the world. It is an art form I know little about but one in which my ignorance would be excused, no doubt, by the Opera Gods. As I walked to my front row seat for a production of “Aida”, I was almost overwhelmed by what I had gotten myself into….the Opera set, replicating an ancient Egyptian milieu, unfolded up on the stage in front of me….the magnificent orchestra in the pit below. Handsome, well dressed Italian couples out for a special evening and summer rite of passage….this was and is a special evening!
Some events live up marginally to their hype….some actually don’t make the grade at all. And then there are some that just assault you with sensory overload. Every visual cue is stunning…the size of the sets, the colors and flamboyancy of the costumes, the richness of the orchestra generated music and then…..the voices of the performers…the venue itself. Almost 3 hours later, I am almost exhausted…and feel spent emotionally.
But in true Italian fashion, there is always a place offered to gather your emotions….this culture never leaves you undone. As I walk out of the Arena still reeling, I come upon the restaurant that my date and I had dinner a few hours before….an Veronese culinary institution, just beyond the walls of the Arena….Tre Marchetti. This time it is a party flowing out into the street….previously it was a classic old school Italian dining venue. We sit at a small table amongst the street crowd enjoying the afterglow of what we just experienced….Negroni cocktails and a lovely regional red wine to help digest what we just heard and observed. We are joined by opera performers, coming down from the same high mingling with their admiring crowd. Unfortunately, one person that didn’t show that night in the street outside of the Tre Marchetti was Franco Zeffirelli although he was indeed “in the house” as they say….his sets and production from the 2002 performances of Aida being utilized for this night‘s performance. As with his work and the performances of so many greats in this venue over the years, it remains a timeless experience and not one to be missed!
Special thanks to Fondazione Arena di Verona for providing media permissions for this article