Visiting Lake Garda: Trip to Verona
Today we headed on our day trip to Verona from Garda. We met the coach at the Garda bus station for 8:35am for the trip I booked through Viator. It cost £194.60 for the four of us and included the coach journey to Verona and then a walking tour of a few of the sights. We also had free time to enjoy before and after. Our coach dropped us off and then our guide from the coach walked us over the Ponte Scaligero bridge which was quite an attractive bridge into the square.
You can do it cheaper!
Later in our stay we realized you could get a public bus to Verona for 10 euros each. I think we really should have done that instead, just to save so much more money! Once in Verona you could actually pick up a free city map and do your own walking tour. So it wasn’t as if having that added a lot of extra value to our trip either. Although the separate guide on our actual bus was worth more in my opinion, I wish he could have also done the walking tour, but he didn’t have a license for Verona. Still, it meant we ticked off some sights without having to figure out how to get to them ourselves.
Piazza delle Erbe
Piazza dei Signori (which seemed much quieter)
Arca di Cansignorio
I think part of the reason I booked an organized trip was I thought it would be the safest option as lots of sites suggested being careful of pick pockets on public transport. But the city felt very safe to us (although we did keep a close eye on our belongings at all times).
Even though we paid over the odds we still had a wonderful time in Verona. It is a beautiful city. Most of all we enjoyed sitting in the square (Piazza Bra) watching the world pass us by and keeping topped up on refreshments.
Ristorante Caffe Vittorio Emanuele
We went to Ristorante Caffe Vittorio Emanuele. We didn’t check Tripadvisor again which was out of character for us. But it looked a popular place, had a nice outdoor seated area with good views of the square. We used the bathroom before leaving and the inside of the restaurant looked very elegant.
We had breakfast but stayed on then having various drinks whilst our server a lovely gentleman kept bringing us a steady supply of crisps and savoury snacks.
Juliet’s Balcony
On our walking tour we finished off in a very crowded courtyard to see the balcony, plus everyone was lining up to touch the bronze statue of Juliette breast as it is meant to give you good luck! Apparently, this is the second statue as the breast was worn off the last one…
I am not sure how comfortable I am with the concept. But I got swept up in the swarm and had a photo anyway.
Arena di Verona
The Arena di Verona is impressive to look at from the outside. However, we didn’t pay to go inside as our guide on our coach had said its had a lot of renovation work and has been completely modernised to fit the seating in for all the opera festivals hosted there. He didn’t feel it was worth the entrance charge or the time you would spend queuing to get inside.
Ponte Pietra
After we went looking for Ponte Pietra as our coach guide had said it’s a bridge worth seeing. It is a great spot to take some photos with fantastic views either side. The feature picture is one from this very bridge.
Then we returned to Ristorante Caffe Vittorio Emanuele because we appreciated the attentive service and had more drinks and some ice creams. After that we met with our coach guide who got us safely back onboard the coach and back to Garda.