The Colomba d’Oro guide to Verona’s cultural treasures: love, art, music, and literature

Although Venice and Capri often come to mind when thinking of romantic Italian destinations, Verona is the one and only “City of Love” in Italy. This reputation comes mainly from the fact that Verona is where William Shakespeare set “Romeo and Juliet” – and his choice is not surprising at all as you walk through its cobbled streets, majestic squares, awe-inspiring monuments and cozy restaurants: everything provides the ideal setting for romantic getaway, or honeymoon.

But that’s not all; there’s much more. Verona is the city of love, but also of art, eternal inspiration, and opera; it is a perfect stage for stories, music, poetry, and extraordinary encounters. The city of the Colomba d’Oro has inspired and hosted some of the greatest writers and poets of all time, leaving profound traces in their works. Make yourself comfortable: here’s the Colomba d’Oro selection.

Goethe and his Grand Tour of Italy

In 1786, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe arrived in Verona during his famous journey through Italy. His stop was brief but intense: he was supposed to reach Venice, but he was struck by Verona’s architectural beauty –  the Filarmonico Theater, Porta Palio, and above all the Verona Arena, which he praised in his “travel memoirs.” A few steps from the Colomba d’Oro, the closest 4-star hotel to the Verona Arena—which at the time, however, was not yet a hotel but still the convent of San Donato alla Colomba—Goethe admired the warm light of the city, its sunsets, and the tranquility of its gardens. He was struck by the cypress tree in Giardino Giusti—sadly destroyed by a hailstorm in 2020—which evoked in him nostalgia and wonder.

Dante Alighieri, the “Ghibelline Fugitive”

Dante was in every way a man of his time: a great artist but also a person totally involved in the bloody political struggles that had tormented Italy since 12th century. As he was condemned to perpetual exile from his city, Florence, he took refuge in Verona as a guest of the brothers Bartolomeo and Cangrande della Scala. Here Dante found a historic city renowned for its art and literature, but also an enlightened, prosperous, peaceful, and forward-looking city. He lived here for about seven years, composing much of his “Paradiso” while a guest of Cangrande, to whom he dedicated the canticle and whom he later portrayed in it as a figure whose deeds would be extraordinary and illustrious. Verona celebrates Dante with a statue in the center of Piazza dei Signori (which in fact the locals call “Piazza Dante”), but also with a more recent statue next to the church of Sant’Elena, adjacent to the Duomo, a few minutes’ walk from the Colomba d’Oro. This statue commemorates Dante’s lecture on January 20, 1320, explaining the phenomenon of land emerging from the water’s surface (the text of that address would be published only in 1508, under the title “Questio de aqua et terra”, based on a lost manuscript.)

Berto Barbarani, the poet of the people

Veronese Berto Barbarani is one of Italy’s greatest dialect poets. His poems recount daily life in Verona, its neighborhoods, its countryside, and its ordinary people. His words convey melancholy and sweetness, but also resilience: a truly Veronese ability to face the hardships of life with irony and dignity. His voice is a tribute to the true Verona, the one discovered by walking slowly, just as one can do around our four-star hotel closest to the Verona Arena.

Scipione Maffei: Author, Scholar, Collector

Born in 1675 from a patrician family, Marquis Scipione Maffei had the opportunity to travel to major European cities from a young age, expanding his artistic and political horizons, making him a true point of reference for numerous intellectuals and rulers. A multifaceted author of political, philosophical, theological, and scientific treatises, his monumental work, « Verona illustrata », retraces the historical and artistic events of his beloved city. He is responsible for the Lapidary Museum (later dedicated to him) and the adjacent Philharmonic Theater, inaugurated with a Vivaldi drama with a libretto by Maffei: both are just a few minutes’ walk from the Colomba d’Oro.

Beyond Writing : between Art and Painting

Home to numerous writers and researchers, Verona is recognized as an artistically fertile place like Florence. With a history spanning many pictorial—and architectural—currents from Roman times onward, between Romanesque and Gothic, the so-called “Veronese School” was established starting in the 14th century: the quality and style of the paintings, featuring both liturgical and everyday themes, were unique and easily distinguishable.

Three notable examples are Pisanello’s « Saint George and the Princess », displayed in the Basilica of Sant’Anastasia; Andrea Mantegna’s San Zeno Altarpiece, displayed in the basilica of the same name; and Pietro Caliari’s ( known as « The Veronese ») « Lamentation over the Dead Christ » , housed in the Castelvecchio Museum, a stone’s throw from the Colomba d’Oro. Also in Castelvecchio are Mantegna’s “Holy Family with a Saint” and “Christ Carrying the Cross”.

The Public’s Frenzy for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

In 1769, a young man of just 13 years old arrived in Verona: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Accompanied by his father, the child prodigy performed in the Sala Maffeiana of the Teatro Filarmonico, leaving the audience speechless. The following year, she returned to play at the Church of San Tomaso, where the organ she played is still preserved, engraved with her initials.

Maria Callas: The Voice That Conquered the World

On August 2, 1947, the then-unknown Maria Callas, just twenty-three years old, born in New York to Greek parents, after arriving in Italy by steamship, took the stage at the Verona Arena to reveal to the world the incredible potential of her amazing voice. On that occasion, Callas was “discovered,” beginning her career that would see her become “La Divina,” the most famous opera singer in the world, but she also met her future husband, the Veronese Giovanni Battista Meneghini. During their breaks between operas, the couple vacationed in beautiful Sirmione, on Lake Garda; for the rest of her life, she lived in her husband’s villa in Zevio, on the plain south of Verona, where she learned to cook traditional local dishes, which you can still experience just steps from the Colomba d’Oro.

Modern Verona has continued to fascinate great artists, including Maestro Ennio Morricone, who has always chosen the Colomba d’Oro as his “home” near the Arena.

At the Colomba d’Oro, you’ll stay amid the stories of those who made Verona great. Just steps from the Arena, with elegance and comfort, you can experience the same inspiration that touched poets, musicians, and painters. Discover Verona and book a luxury room in the center of Verona at the Colomba d’Oro, where art meets hospitality.