VERONA · LAKE GARDA · THE DOLOMITES
Roman stone, blue water, pale mountains.
Opera in the Arena, Juliet's balcony, ferries across Lake Garda and the Great Dolomites Road. The northeast corner of Italy where a city of marble, the country's biggest lake and a UNESCO mountain range sit within an hour of each other.
Three places, one trip
A city, a lake and a mountain range, side by side.
Most of Italy makes you choose between art, water and the Alps. This corner does not. Verona for the Roman stone and the opera, Lake Garda for the southern light, the Dolomites for the pale peaks, all within an easy drive.
Opera in the round
A Roman arena that never closed.
Verona raised its amphitheatre before the Colosseum and never stopped using it. Two thousand years on, the Arena still seats fifteen thousand under the open sky, and on summer nights it turns into the largest opera house on earth. No other Roman ruin earns its keep quite like this one.
- 1 Verona: Pasta and Tiramisu Cooking Class with Fine Wine
- 2 Verona: Classic and Hidden Gems Bike Tour
- 3 Verona: Pasta and Tiramisu Cooking Class With Free Flowing Wine
Italy's great lake
Mountain water, southern light.
Garda is the biggest lake in Italy, deep blue and forty-five kilometres long, held between the cliffs of Trentino and the olive groves of the south. Lemon terraces, Venetian harbour towns and a Roman spa on the spit at Sirmione ring a shore you are meant to cross by ferry.
- 1 Dolomites Full-Day Tour from Lake Garda
- 2 Verona Full-Day Tour from Lake Garda
- 3 Lake Garda Mini Cruise: Sirmione Peninsula
The pale mountains
Peaks that turn rose at dusk.
The Dolomites are a UNESCO range of bare limestone towers the locals call the pale mountains. At sunset the rock catches a slow pink fire the Ladin people named enrosadira. The Great Dolomites Road threads the passes between them, one emerald lake and one alpine valley at a time.
- 1 From Bolzano: Private Day Tour by car: The Great Dolomites Road
- 2 Guided winery tour with tasting in Bolzano at the SKYWINE PAVILLON
- 3 Bolzano Street Food Tour®
Where most trips begin
Start in Verona.
If you only lock in one thing before you fly, make it this. The booking more travellers build a northern Italy trip around than any other.
The classics
The Tours Everyone Books First
The Arena, Juliet's balcony, the Garda ferries and the Dolomite drives. The days most people come north for, in one place.
The first decision
Verona, the lake, or the mountains?
Three very different bases, all within ninety minutes of each other. Where you choose to sleep shapes the whole trip, so here is what each one does best.
Lake Garda
The lake you cross by ferry.
Garda is a string of towns you hop between by boat. Roman Sirmione on its long thin spit, the lemon terraces of Limone under the cliffs, the steady wind that funnels down the northern fjord to the windsurfers at Riva. A morning on the water, a long lakeside lunch, a town you had never heard of by dinner.
Plan a day on Lake Garda →The Dolomites
Where Italy turns alpine.
An hour north of the vineyards the land tilts up into the pale limestone of the Dolomites, a UNESCO range of towers and emerald lakes. The Great Dolomites Road climbs from Bolzano over the high passes, past Lago di Carezza and the foot of the Latemar, to peaks that glow rose at the end of the day.
Into the mountains →By place
Pick a corner of the northeast.
Verona for the arena and the streets. Lake Garda for the ferries and the harbours. Peschiera and Desenzano for the lake towns. Trento and Bolzano for the road up into the Dolomites.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
Never been? Here is a long weekend that takes in the city, the lake and the mountains without a wasted hour.
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