Arena di Verona: Opera Tickets, Tours and the Verona Opera Festival

A Roman amphitheatre, older than the Colosseum

The Arena was built in the 1st century AD, in the late Augustan or early Tiberian years, and both it and the amphitheatre at Pula predate the Colosseum in Rome. It is among the best-preserved ancient amphitheatres anywhere, a survival helped by restorations that began in the 16th century. In antiquity it stood just outside the city walls, so Emperor Gallienus built a new 550-metre curtain wall in 265 to bring it inside the defences.

Yes, gladiators fought here. Funerary inscriptions of fighters who died in the Arena have been found in Verona, including the secutor Aedonius, killed at twenty-six after eight bouts, and the retiarius Generosus, who fought twenty-seven times without defeat. A carved tuff head of a helmeted gladiator, life-sized, helps scholars date the building to roughly the years between the end of Augustus and the early reign of Claudius.

The Verona opera festival since 1913

The first opera came on 10 August 1913, when tenor Giovanni Zenatello and impresario Ottone Rovato staged Aida in the Arena for the centenary of Verdi's birth. Apart from the wars, the festival has run every summer since. A permanent organisation took over in 1936, and today it is the Arena di Verona Foundation, which also plays an indoor season from October to May in the rebuilt Teatro Filarmonico.

The scale is the point. The amphitheatre could hold 30,000 spectators, and the productions match it: elephants, horses and dromedaries on stage have been a Verona feature since a 1953 Aida, when silent-film director Georg Wilhelm Pabst flooded the stage with a pool for Egyptian boats. Maria Callas was a regular between 1947 and 1954. The tradition continues with the Aida productions that anchor every programme.

Piazza Bra and the ring of arches

You approach from Piazza Bra, Verona's largest square, where the long paved Liston promenade has been the evening stroll since 1770. The Arena fills the northern edge of the square, its outer ring reduced to a tall arc of arches on one side. On opera nights the whole piazza fills with people heading for the gates, and ticket holders for the Arena opera ticket exchange vouchers at gate 7, where assistance is provided.

Before you go in, look at the square itself. The Gran Guardia, begun by the Venetians in the 17th century and finished by the Austrians in the 19th, closes the southern side, and Palazzo Barbieri, now the town hall, the eastern one.

The cavea, the steps and the upper tiers

Inside, the great bowl opens up: stone tiers rising in concentric rings, the cheapest seats the unnumbered steps of the upper tiers, the numbered stalls nearest the stage. On a daytime Verona arena tour a guide walks you from the arches to the upper tiers in about 45 minutes, and the climb is worth it for the view over the rooftops of Verona. On performance days the daytime visit is cut short while the stage is set, so go early in the day.

At an opera, the ritual is the moccoletto. Spectators on the stone steps bring small candles and light them as dusk falls and the performance begins. Bring a cushion for the steps, arrive early for a good unnumbered place, and expect the final curtain well after midnight.

Opening times and the opera schedule

Daytime monument visits run daily, but on performance days they are cut short while the stage is set, and on festival days the Arena closes early for the evening opera. Operas start at 21:15 and run past midnight with intervals, so plan a late night. The festival season runs through the summer, and the 104th festival runs from 11 June to 11 September with Aida in two productions, La traviata, Nabucco, Zeffirelli's Carmen and the ballet Romeo and Juliet returning after 34 years. For the printed schedule and casts, check the theatre's website, never guess from an old poster.

Outside the summer, the foundation's indoor season plays at the Teatro Filarmonico, and if you want opera in Verona between seasons the palace arias concerts are the practical answer.

Dress code and house rules

There is no dress rule on the unnumbered stone steps, which is why most of the audience dresses for a warm evening outdoors. The rule bites in the numbered stalls: men in shorts, tank tops or flip-flops are refused. For the full picture across Italy, see our opera dress code guide.

Book ahead, because good seat categories sell out for headline nights. The opera ticket is not for children under 4, and if a performance is cancelled refunds follow the Arena's own rules.

Finding Piazza Bra

The address is Piazza Bra 1, 37121 Verona, and you cannot miss it: the Roman arcades close the view at the top of the square. From the two city gates of the Portoni della Bra, walk straight up the Liston and the Arena is in front of you. On opera nights, follow the crowd towards gate 7 for voucher exchange if you hold the Arena opera ticket.

Verona is well connected by train, and the station sits on the edge of the centre, with the Arena an easy onward trip by city bus or on foot, our estimate about 20 minutes. The city card includes free city buses, which is one more reason to pick the Verona city card if you are museum-hopping. If you are staying over, our guide on where to stay for opera covers the streets around Piazza Bra.

Three ways to spend the day

The Arena itself needs about 45 minutes on a guided visit, or longer if you linger on the upper tiers. The decision is what you pair it with. The table below gives three routings that work in practice, from a quick stop to a full festival day.

If you are continuing your opera travels, Verona sits well for Vicenza, where Palladio's Teatro Olimpico keeps the oldest surviving indoor stage set, and for the lake-stage season at the Puccini festival at Torre del Lago further south.

The list

Most visitors know the opera. Fewer know these five facts, each of which is worth a second look when you are standing in the bowl.

• The Arena is older than the Colosseum: it and the Pula amphitheatre predate Rome's, with completion placed around 30 AD Wikipedia, Verona Arena
• A letter of Pliny the Younger is the only surviving literary record of the ancient games, describing a venatio, a hunting spectacle, offered as a funeral tribute Wikipedia, Verona Arena
• The retiarius Generosus fought twenty-seven times without defeat and died of natural causes, according to his funerary inscription found in Verona Wikipedia, Verona Arena
• When rain interrupted Beethoven's Ninth in 1976, Maurice Béjart's ballet continued to a cassette tape of the music, without the orchestra Wikipedia, Arena di Verona Festival
• Audience members on the stone steps light small candles called moccoletti as darkness falls and the performance begins Wikipedia, Arena di Verona Festival