Your Summer holiday to Italy from Southampton: Verona & Venice the cities of love

Summers in Southampton during the months of June to August are charming and lovely, with the sunny weather bringing the temperature of as high as 25°C. It is bustling with activity from cafes teeming with people, even having tables on pavements. Although living in Southampton all your life can make you crave for something different. Many Southampton residents choose Verona as their summer destination for its cultural appeal and elaborate Gothic architecture.

Flight Details: Verona from Southampton

The flight time from Southampton, Hampshire is more or less two hours via a direct flight from the Southampton airport to the Verona airport. The best, and perhaps the only enjoyable time to fly from Southampton to Verona is in the summer since it is the only season with a direct flight available.

Places to Visit in Verona

There are many interesting places to visit in Verona.

• Juliet’s Balcony
The most popular perhaps among the tourist spots in Verona is Juliet’s balcony, which was even immortalized in movies. Romantics around the world troop to this famed balcony to somehow get the feeling of traveling back in time to the 1300s, to the time of the feuding families of Capulets (Capuleti) and Montagues (Montecchi), the inspiration to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The balcony, tucked in a place near Piazza delle Erbe, attracts tourists who are intrigued with the story of family rivalry and forbidden love.

• Giardino Giusti
The Giardino Giusti, or the Giusti Gardens, sits on the eastern bank of the river Adige, in the grounds of the Giusti palace. With an Italian Rennaissance style design, the gardens provide a softness to the magnificent architecture of the city. The palace in front of the gardens displays a Neo-Classical design. The well-manicured gardens are divided into 8 different squares, each with a distinct design and a fountain or a decoration in each of its center. There is also a hedge maze and a small wooded area for walking.

• Castel St Pietro
Since Verona is a city for walking, you might want to walk up the steps found next to Teatro Romano, and go uphill behind Ponte Pietro to visit the Castel St. Pietro. The allure of the place is in its mystery; the port seems like an abandoned post with avenues lined by beautiful trees. The picturesque avenue of cypress trees are great for picture taking. You may then head towards the back of the fort and enjoy Venice’s suburban area.

Where to Eat in Verona

Verona is home to restaurants offering Italian dishes that dates back to generations. Some of the restaurants you can try in Verona are:
1. Osteria Sottoriva, for their braised tripe and crepes
2. Hosteria La Vecchia Fontanina, for their traditional Veronese cuisine
3. Trattoria Papa e Cicia, for a home-cooked affordable lunch
4. Enocibus, for its soups, pastas and salads
5. Caffe Monte Baldo, for its antipasti

Wine Tasting in Verona

A lot of Verona tours itinerary come with a wine-tasting activity. It gives you the chance to enjoy the beautiful scenery in the countryside while sampling the best wines of the Veneto region. The visit to the vineyard will introduce you to the owners and the winemakers. You will have a firsthand experience of holding different varieties of grapes from which the wines were produced. A wine tasting session in Verona will start with Piazza Bra where a guide waits for you, You are then taken for a ride from the city to the bucolic Corte San Mattia located in the Torricelle Hills. Upon arrival, the owner will share some of the tricks of the wine-making trade. The grape varieties Valpolicella, San Mattia Rosso, San Mattia Bianco, Rubro del Forte, Donna Francesca and Amarone, are available for observation. The highlight of the activity is of course, the wine tasting. Your guide will bring you back to the city after the end of the tour.

From Venice to Verona for your chance to see Venice

Venice, or Venezia, in Italian is just a short trip from Verona, so you can make your holiday even more extraordinary spending a day or more in the romantic Venice, there are many options for getting there.

The cheapest way to travel from Venice to Verona is to take the bus. There are buses plying from Verona to Venice daily. They depart from the Stazione Porta Nuova in Verona and arrive at the Tronchetto bus station in Venice. Travel time is approximately 2 hours.

The fastest way of traveling is via Trenitalia, a high-speed train departing from Porta Nuova train station in Verona arriving at either the Santa Lucia train station or Mestre Train Station in Venice. Travel time is approximately an hour.

It is not advisable to travel by plane as there are no direct flights.

You may opt to go on an opera-themed cruise when going back from Venice to Verona via European Waterways. The 20-passenger barge La Bella Vita, which you can board in Venice, will take you on a 6-day cruise, including a stop in Ferrara, a charming Italian city with cobbled-stone streets and Gothic cathedrals, and will dock in Mantua, as well as a detour in the birdwatchers’ haven River Po Delta. It stops in Arena di Verona, to catch a performance of Bizet’s Carmen.

Have you ever been to Venice or Verona? What did you like the most?

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