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VERONA
114km
(71 miles) W of Venice, 502km (311
miles) NW of Rome, 81km (50 miles)
W of Padua.
Most tourists to Verona probably know the city as the setting
of Shakespeare’s famous love
story “Romeo and Juliet”. But
besides this, the remains of
actual past are very much in
evidence today, and Its Roman
antiquities have no equal north of
Rome. Verona was ruled by the
tyrannical Scaligeri princes
during its medieval golden age.
This was when the city rose to the
peak of its power and reputation.
It developed into a town that,
even today, is among the great
cities of Italy. Cangrande I was
the most famous of the ruling
Della Scala family, and he was a
patron of Dante. His control over
Verona has often been compared to
that of Lorenzo the Magnificent
over Florence.
Verona and Venice are both tourist towns, but there the
similarity ends. Verona has many
tourists, but the people you see
on its streets are the residents
of the town, and not its tourists.
Verona is a prosperous, and that
is something special for a city
that reached its peak in the first
century AD. Its art and
architecture are restricted to the
centre of the town, the newer
parts of the city are industry
based, and along with the
factories, have eyesores of urban
development attached to them.
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