A full guide to Verona, Italy
I recently went on a trip to Verona, and though it was my second time there, I was quite young and couldn’t remember all the details. Appropriately, my only memory of Verona was rubbing Juliet’s boobalooms and not understanding the reasons why. This time around, I’d have my local friends to show me the highlights. Mainly I was just praying for good weather, a good time and had plans to overdose on Aperol and carbohydrates!
My friend Tahani and I met at Gatwick airport and though we were eager to shop, there was only so much you could peruse with options such as JD & Sports and Weatherspoons. We soon gave into Jamie’s Italian and had a very non-Italian breakfast of eggs Benedict with avocado on toast!
Catching up and chatting away with your friend, literally makes time go by so quickly and before we knew it, it was time to board the flight. We nervously (but excitedly) buckled our belts and was in the middle of the safety announcement - the one where they explain what to do in order to avoid dying - when we were told there was something wrong with the left fucking falangy.
For the next 3 hours, we played a game of musical planes, with one falangy in, and one falangy out. On a serious note though, whilst trying to keep an increasingly nervous Tahani calm, I simultaneously had visions of the plane bursting into flames in the air and scenes from the film Bridesmaids when they’re on the plane with a nervous flyer. I particularly love that scene where the main character Annie is high in the air and on life, after taking a mixed concoction of alcohol and sedatives!
I’m not one to get anxious on flights but in that moment, I prayed to God, Jesus, his mother Mary and the donkey. Thankfully, we landed safely in Italy, albeit only a mere 4 hours late! I don’t know about anyone else but it doesn’t actually hit me that I’m abroad until I exit the destination country’s airport and it’s when the warm air hits me and I’m like “ahhhh”, that my brain registers I’m in a different climate.
Instead of breaking down our activities and restaurants day by day, I decided to write about my journey in categories. We were supposed to be there for 4 full days, which turned into 3.5 days (fucking British Airways’ faulty falangy!) but we still made the most of it, thanks to my friends Chiara and Virginia. Chiara in particular had planned a military styled itinerary (minus a whip) for us and therefore we got to eat and see a lot!
Food
Osteria Metti
Metti is a beautiful hillside restaurant near the lake, which is often fully booked with locals. We were fortunate enough to get a table last minute and even after 9pm, it was still buzzing. The setting was traditional, yet modern and though the menu was in Italian, my mouth was salivating at what was to come. This restaurant would be tricky to get to without a car, satnav and/ or local but we were fortunate enough to experience it.
We had a starter of antipasti consisting of smoked burrata, goats cheese, anchovy on bread, beef tartare and all the delicious ham you could ever want! We then shared a truffle pasta with actual real truffle pieces (bouji AF) and a main of perfectly cooked steak, roasted potatoes and vegetables. We had a bottle of Amarone to nicely wash everything down. The antipasti in particular was super delicious and I would go back to this restaurant just for that!
Elk Bakery
A very modern and Instagramable cute cafe serving Instagramy type breakfast and brunch. Though the choices were aplenty, I decided to go for the Bresaola and egg with toasted bagel. The Italian touch came in the form of pesto sauce which actually pulled all the flavours together in a subtle but delicious way.
Since we are greedy bastards, we also decided to order pancakes to share and thank God we did, as it could have fed the whole of Verona! Tahani didn’t want bananas on her pancakes (weirdo) so I had the majority, whilst she went on a sugar overload of strawberries on pancakes with syrup and Nutella sauce.
One juice that regularly featured on the menus in Verona was called Ace and contained orange, carrot and lemon. Virginia said people liked to call it “ace” so I was showing off and pretending to be local, when my other more local friend Chiara, told me it’s actually pronounced “ah-che” like a sneeze. When in Verona and all that jazz....
Saos
My friends Chiara and Virginia are health freaks, especially Chiara but fully well know that I’m not. They know that by mentioning anything vegan or remotely healthy eating related, I’ll run a mile in the opposite direction. One morning, they suggested a breakfast of poke bowls which I hadn’t heard of until that day and managed to lull me into a false sense of security by saying it was “Hawaiian style”. This worked for me, and I fell into their healthy eating trap, because I’ve been to Hawaii and had visions of their meat drowning in gravy…luverly. I realised I had been fooled the second I walked into Saos and saw the interior. Yes, the interior gave it away, with all it’s green and earth friendly colours, with rows and rows of salad and green tea in the fridge which was ready for takeways. My immediate thought was “fuck!” but then I had a word with myself and agreed, I needed a break from the bread which was giving me a bloated belly.
Though poke bowls are traditionally served with raw fish, I had the option with prawns. My poke bowl came with black rice (woo), edamame (yasss), prawns (controversial) and salmon roe (just to spice things up). Thank God it came with salmon roe, because that added some saltiness to the dish, although the bottle of soy sauce helped too. Ironically, Chiara said she hates salmon roe which was the only ingredient giving flavour to the whole fucking thing. But I’ll be honest, I do enjoy the odd occasional healthy dish now and again – don’t quote me on this later! It’s great to cleanse the body and psychologically gives me an excuse to have a double portion of Tiramisu. Instead of feeling like a new woman, I felt strangely bloated later on in the day, and this is when Tahani casually told me that edamame causes bloating too. Thanks a bloody-lot for the delayed information, Tahani. She didn’t say anything when I was shoving edamame down my throat like a fucking rabbit!
I did overall enjoy the restaurant. Would I recommend it? Absolutely! Very healthy and Instagramable too. Would I go back? Not even if you fucking paid me. How is it pronounced? God knows…but I like to call it “sass” because I’m sassy.
Tre Risotti (three risottos)
My friend Chiara told me that Verona has the best risotto and since I’m a fan, I had to sample this. Living in England, too many times, I have been traumatised with soggy risotto that is often overly cooked. People think rice is easy to cook but really it’s not and there’s definitely an art form to it. Chiara told us that it would be a 17 minute walk and so for the first time on my trip, I decided to dress up and wear some heels – big mistake. 1. She took us down the wrong route and we had local dogs barking at us. 2. My heels were from Zara (which doesn’t always have the most comfortable heels), with the vinyl straps. I was feeling very fashionable and fresh, but soon regretted wearing them down the cobbled local streets and in the 31 degree heat, making my foot feel and look like a lump of gammon. Tahani quite sweetly told me that my foot did not look like gammon, and she could easily develop a foot fetish with my feet. This was very much our sense of humour for the entire trip, more on that later…
Chiara tested the oldest trick in the book and blamed Google for getting us lost, but eventually we managed to find it. It was understandable why it was so difficult to find because the restaurant is placed on a quiet residential road, in the middle of more residential streets. We decided to sit outside al fresco style, and I was so grateful to be seated and fed, that I could have kissed the waitress! After browsing the menu, we decided to place our trust in the local Chiara and she chose three risottos for us to try. For starter, we shared a polenta dish that although tasty, had the consistency of baby food. Baby food and cheese, mmm…delicious! The first risotto was red cabbage and wine, the second with Italian sausage and the third with Amarone wine. All three were delicious but my favourite was the sausage one, obvs. Though I like wine, I prefer drinking it, as opposed to it being used as an ingredient in my food.
This restaurant is not Instagramable, and certainly not easy to find but would I recommend it? Hell to the yes. It is a traditional local restaurant, and it is worth trying for that factor alone. I hate going on European holidays, walking into a restaurant/ café and all they serve is English inspired food. If I wanted that, I would stay in the UK and not travel over 1000km to get an egg omelette.
http://www.ristorantetrerisotti.it
Peperino
Being in Italy, and especially being a lover of pizza, I demanded my friends take us to a pizzeria. This was a no-brainer. They recommended a local pizzeria in the city centre, called Peperino. Three of us decided which pizzas to get but my friend Virginia decided to order a big ball of mozzarella cheese instead. I almost judged her for this decision, but she redeemed herself when we agreed to share a bottle of beer. With bottles of beer in the UK, you would imagine the standard small size, but in Italy, they are the size of wine bottles. My kind of alcohol! Tahani and I had a standard, good old fashioned peperoni pizza which was delicious. With a pizza, the base, crust, way it’s cooked and toppings are all equally important but more than anything, I really found the tomato to be standout. There is no way I would praise a tomato in England, but in Italy, it was so tasty and fresh that it added another dimension to the pizza. Praise where credit is due.
My friend Chiara however decided to be really weird and order a tuna and raw onion pizza. Okay, so the onion was supposed to be cooked and since it wasn’t, this caused a little bit of a tension between Chiara and the waitress. To be honest, I thought the waitress was going to be pied in the face with the pizza. It didn’t help that she had little to no customer service and scouse brows. Yes, she had scouse brows. Tattooed. ‘nuff said. Chiara tried to insist that it was normal for pizzas to have a tuna and onion topping, but it tasted strange and reminded me of the tuna and onion baguette sold at Greggs.
I would recommend this place for pizza, beer and bants but stay away from the tuna and onion pizza!
http://www.peperinopizza.it/it/verona
Grom
I couldn’t finish off the food section without mentioning bloody fabulous gelato! Gelato represents Italy and you HAVE to try gelato whenever or wherever you visit Italy. Word to the wise, gelato and ice-cream are different but easily mixed up as being the same thing. Secondly, try to avoid falling for the tourist trappy crappy gelato places. We were fortunate enough to have local friends who recommended their favourites Grom and La Romana.
Grom is in the city centre therefore is super easy to locate. It’s a cute gelato place, which also sells chocolate and biscotti (biscuits). I got the cup and ordered myself the yoghurt and pistachio flavours. Whenever I’m in Italy, I will attempt to at least say a few words in Italian and pronounced pistachio as Italians would “pis-tah-kee-o”. When I said this, the lady behind the counter was impressed and encouraged me like a mother would with their 5-year-old child. She was proud and so was I. I also purchased nut and pistachio flavoured biscotti as a gift to my mum and she absolutely loved them. She enjoyed dunking a few into her coffee, and said “you can tell these are from Italy…”
https://www.grom.it/en/gelateria-verona.html
La Romana
La Romana is a bit further away from the city centre as it was a 5-minute car ride. My friend Chiara took us there and it is such a lovely gelato place, although seating is limited. Whilst out there, I realised Italians often like to do a 5-minute pit stop for gelato and espresso, literally munch and go (that sounds weird), or down (their coffee) and go. But when it comes to dinner, they will gladly sit for hours, drinking wine and discussing life. Love this!
Here I ordered the yoghurt with raspberry and it was truly deliziosa!
https://www.gelateriaromana.com/28-gelateria-verona.php
Drinks
Mandorla
Everyone knows I like a drink or two (understatement of the century) and therefore Chiara and Virginia (fellow alcoholics) had a list of places we should try, including Mandorla. Mandorla from the outside doesn’t wow you, and it is tiny but sometimes it is places like this that serve the best food and alcohol. Though small, with very limited seating, Mandorla was always busy (especially in the evenings) with people willing to sit on the pavements just to drink there. What I particularly enjoyed about this culture is that people are respectful of one another. Unlike England, there were no rowdy drunks, no-one getting into anyone else’s business, everyone cheerful and no laddy types going “oi oi” and treating you like a piece of salami. Of course, you get the odd appreciative looks from cheeky Italian men but nothing harmful.
Mandorla is actually an alcoholic beverage made from almonds and I hadn’t heard of it until my trip to Verona, but now I’m a lifelong fan. Some may compare it to Amaretto which is also made with almonds but Mandorla is less sweet, fuller and more refined in flavour. I would compare it to a 20-year-old port and it is pretty much drunk in the small way, in a small glass, with each sip being appreciated for its taste. I loved it so much, I bought three bottles of it at an amazing cheap 10 Euros each. Just to be clear, one was for me and two were gifts but the staff seemed a bit boggled at how many I was buying! I am already halfway through the one at home, as it’s the perfect drink to accompany a cheese board or for winding down in the evenings after work.
Chiara and Virginia, whenever you come to London, please bring a bottle with you! Grazie mille!
La Tradision
This bar is close to the city centre and is very “traditional” as the name suggests, with its wooden beams and classic feel. They have everything you could want in a bar, all different types of quality alcohol and all the ham you could ever want. We ordered Hugo and Aperols to drink, accompanied by a small antipasti board with ham, cheese and pickled vegetables. This is definitely a bar I would recommend and become a regular of, if I lived in Verona. La Tradision appeals to everyone from group of friends, to mature people, families and is a great date venue too!
The waiter serving us kindly asked if we wanted anything else, and ‘no’ was the answer as I was truly content with the food, drinks and company. My only (non-relevant) question would have been, what products he uses to get volume in his hair. Therein out, his name was voluminous hair guy, who ironically ended up at the same bar as us later that night (with his girlfriend). Verona is clearly a small city, so thank God I didn’t ask that question!
Re Teodorico
If you want to go to a bar with a wow factor, this is the place to go. It’s slightly more bouji and though views were great during the day, it’s one of those places that would be stunning at night time. It’s great for a night out with your girls – very Sex and The City style, or a romantic date venue. Even though it was quite a sophisticated venue, the drinks were fairly priced and the service friendly. It would be difficult to get here without a car as it’s a little way out of the city centre but you could easily grab a taxi there and back.
Hotel Milano
This was another bar with the wow factor, overlooking the arena. It was literally in the city centre and was the perfect venue for drinks on our first night in Verona. The only weird element of this bar was the random jacuzzi placed in the middle of the venue, and a table right next to it. Virginia remembered going for drinks one time, and being sat right next to a couple in the jacuzzi. I get that it’s a hotel, but really awks if you want an intimate jacuzzi experience especially as the rooftop bar is open to the public.
The service here was impeccable and I’d say they had one of the best service in the whole of Verona. The views were A+ especially when the sun began to set. It was so romantic, I was ready to propose to my friends – that level of romantic. What wasn’t romantic, was the wind blowing in the opposite direction of a L’Oreal inspired advert, and instead made me feel a little Grudge-like. I would absolutely recommend this bar and who knows, if I wanted to splash out for my next trip to Verona, maybe I would stay at this hotel.
Lake Garda
You cannot visit Verona and not visit Lake Garda. It is a bit of a bitch to get to, but if you’re not fortunate enough to have local friends, hire a car or I believe there is a train that goes to the station near the lake. We didn’t have enough time to visit the smaller towns around Lake Garda (Largo Garda) but next time I visit Verona, this is definitely on my agenda, especially Bardolino which my friend Chiara spoke about 1 million times.
We hired a small boat, which you can do on the spot without reservation and normally costs 120 Euros + petrol for 4 hours. However, you don’t have to hire for this long and can pay per hour. 4 hours sounds like a long time but honestly, when you’re with your friends and having fun in the sun, that time goes by so quickly! My friend Chiara soon took on the role of the boat driver and definitely had the bad-ass Bond Girl vibes about her. To be honest, both Chiara and Tahani have the body and looks of a Bond Girl, except Chiara is the one who would seduce but kill Bond and Tahani would be wooed, taken shopping and be the ditzy one…sorry, Tahani!
Chiara had rather sweetly prepared a packed lunch for us of delicious ham sandwiches, fruits and bottles of water to keep us hydrated on the boat. After a quick lunch, Chiara and Tahani went swimming and frolicked in the water like two elegant dolphins. I on the other hand, stayed on the boat as I cannot swim. Chiara had brought a huge inflatable for me, but I didn’t think drowning would be a good holiday experience and therefore used it as a pillow when sunbathing instead. Though they were encouraging me loads, I had visions of me drowning and local newspapers writing an article about a ‘Chinese girl’ (I’m not) found dead and bobbing on the surface of the lake like a wine cork.
During the boat ride, we gossiped, spoke about life, had an impromptu Pilates class, laughed at the stupid filters on Snapchat and sang along to songs which I didn’t know the lyrics to. Before we knew it, it was almost time for us to get off and though I initially felt sad, on the other hand, I was glad to get off what was a very rocky boat – thank God I didn’t vomit!
After thanking God for not drowning and stepping onto flat (non-moving) land, we headed to the Lido for an Aperol and watched the relaxing waters whilst still soaking up the rays. After only one Aperol, I felt quite drunk (as did Tahani) and we soon concluded that we were drunk on Vitamin D. After living amongst grey clouds in London, our bodies were quickly going into a meltdown as we had spent four hours exposed to the Italian sun. I quite literally felt high and at one point, felt like Bridget Jones when she is high on magic mushrooms in Thailand.
We quickly made an exit and headed to Chiara’s family home close to Lake Garda. Her house is what I’d describe as a traditional Italian family home and had beautiful views of the countryside from her kitchen window. Her kitchen window literally looked like a postcard and it was so therapeutic to look out, until she kindly told me that her neighbour had committed suicide in the house next door, which (for some bizarre) reason, quite quickly killed the mood. Though I’ve met her mum and sister before, who are so lovely, I finally got to meet her nonna (grandmother) and her cat Simba. I used every broken Italian phrase I could muster to communicate with her mum and grandmother, who seemed to understand me but when they spoke back in very quick and fluent Italian, I suddenly felt another Bridget Jones moment coming on. It truly was a wonderful and almost surreal experience to be there in that moment!
Shops
I won’t go into too much details with shopping but what I love about Verona and I think Italy in general is the perfect harmony of designer, high street and boutique shops which all happily co-exist amongst each other. Oh, and one word, Sephora!
You have the high street stores like Zara, Bershka and Cos, the designers like Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Max Mara and then the independent boutique shops. The shop however, that gave us the most giggles on holiday was Boggi Milano, which is a formal menswear shop (mainly selling suits). In Korean, ‘boggi’ is a slang name for vagina and is pronounced in the same way. Everytime we walked past this store, we giggled like stupid 5-year-olds and this then inspired lots of immature boggi jokes like… “dodgy boggi”. Boggi Milano could essentially mean Milano vagina. Keeping it classy!
Every time we walked down the streets, Tahani would keep banging on about the gully’s and the jasmine flowers. I wouldn’t have had the priviledge of knowing exactly how many bloody gullys and jasmine flower plants there were, if Tahani hadn’t kept pointing them out. This obviously became a regularly featured joke and every time I did an impression of her talking about the gullys, Tahani pointed out how much I sounded like Stewie from bloody Family Guy. I love him.
Tour bus
Every holiday I go on, I like to take the tour bus and though it makes me look like a proper tourist; at the end of the day, I am a bloody tourist! What I like about the tour bus is that it gives you a quick insight into the main sites and attractions of the city you’re visiting. Would I recommend the tour bus in Verona? Yes, if you don’t have local friends, and no if you do. I’m used to people selling and promoting tickets everywhere I go but in Verona, there were no such people. Tahani and I had to go searching for the place to buy the tickets and eventually found it in a small corner shop tucked away in Piazza Bra. If anyone is truly interested, let me know and I will describe where exactly it is because it is literally hidden away with the tiniest sign. You could purchase tickets online but, in my experience, they normally need you to physically print the ticket, as they don’t accept confirmation emails on your phone etc.
To be honest, you could just do a walking tour by yourself. Take yourself to the city centre and start at Piazza Bra where the Arena is based. Within walking distance, you’ll find the local market and shops at Piazza Erbe and Juliet’s (of Romeo and Juliet’s) house. It’s obviously fictional but still beautiful to see the balcony and the statue of Juliet. The legend has it that if you rub her right boob, single people will find love. Tahani of course, rubbed the wrong boob. Typical Tahani!
Accommodation
There are probably tonnes of places to stay in Verona such as B&Bs, apartments and hotels. Tahani and I stayed in an apartment which I found through Booking.com. I prefer booking places through Booking.com rather than direct as I feel there is always that support system/ body should you run into any trouble with the accommodation. Our two-bed apartment was clean and modern, and literally in the centre of everything. I would highly recommend it and it is called Corte Spagnola. We got a good deal and a slight discount because I am a loyal customer of Booking.com. We flew with British (bloody) Airways, with a good deal. The BA economy plus flight (with checked-in luggage) and 2 bed-apartment for a 3 night stay totalled to around £270 each which was a total bargain. Trust me, I did a lot of research and read a lot of reviews!
https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/corte-spagnola.en-gb.html
Final Thoughts
If you are travelling by taxi, be prepared to hold on because Italians do not understand the meaning of gentle driving. Also before you jump into any taxi, ask the driver very clearly how much the journey is in advance. Even if they say it’s “by the meter”, they will know approximately how much it will cost. If you look like a tourist, chances are, you could be duped into paying more money than necessary.
When in Verona, take extra cash. For some bizarre reason, many restaurants and bars didn’t like people splitting the bill and many had the same suspicious malfunctioning card machines. Either way, take extra cash as cards aren’t as readily accepted like other cities.
We were super lucky enough to have not only one, but two friends who live in Verona and I always feel like it’s a better experience when you travel with locals. At the same time, this is why I wanted to write about and share all the best places that the locals recommended, to make the most of your journey.
Anyone that truly knows me, know that I have a love for Italy as a country. If you cannot decide where to go for a short city break, Verona is the place to be. You will be guaranteed hot weather (in the summer months), great places to shop, eat and drink. There is also a lot of culture to soak up and Lake Garda is a must!
On our flight home, we left with a sunset and returned to shitty English weather – standard. The Uber journey home, quite quickly brought me back to reality as our driver looked like a serial killer and at one point, kept taking us down really creepy – horror movie inspired – country lanes with no lights whatsoever.
Anyway, I will forever look back on this trip very fondly and will certainly return to Verona many more times. Thank you so much to Chiara and Virginia for being the best hosts, ti amo!
#gullys #dodgyboggi #faultyfuckingfalangy
Until next time xo
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All pictures in this post are my own
*All friends names have been changed*
