WHERE TO STAY
One of the first cultural differences I learned to appreciate in Italy was to never judge a building by its exterior. Non-descript architecture or graffiti-scrawled, crumbling walls often enclosed palatial rooms or high-design interiors with all the mod cons. Thus it is with Verona’s Hotel San Luca.
Its location down a grubby alley behind a McDonalds doesn’t promise much. The double-height lobby enclosed in gauzy curtains, filled with traditional carpets and furniture and illuminated with a crystal chandelier under a ceiling painted to mimic the sky is a surprise after a humble, mid-century-modern entry in an alley off the alley. If you didn’t know the hotel was there, you’d never stumble upon it, and you’d never guess at the comfort and luxurious design within.
The hotel’s greatest advantage, however, is location. It’s a five-minute stroll to Piazza Bra, the town square dominated by the Roman amphitheater, and from there on to the rest of the historic centre. Despite that central location, the San Luca’s back alley location … plus solid windows screened by metal shutters … make it remarkably quiet. Bedrooms mix modern design with a traditional sensibility, mattresses and pillows are high quality sheathed in crisp Italian linens, and the air conditioning works well. (The last is a real gift when you’re returning from a day of hot, sticky sightseeing.)
Everyone we met on staff was fluent in Italian, English and German and those on the front desk were conversant on all the local tourist attractions … including a local’s grasp of the city’s operatic traditions. Breakfast is basic, in classic Italian style. A few cakes and pastries, a bit of fruit, a plate of ham and cheese, with a lovely duo who ran the room quick to serve up the coffee of your choice.
The hotel even has a very limited amount of parking if you arrange it with them well in advance. Rooms start at around £170, with costs rising in line with the tourist seasons. This would definitely be my choice for a return to Verona.
WHERE TO EAT
Tre Marchetti is just a stone’s throw from the arena but, critically, it’s down a small lane at the back rather than fronting on to the Piazza Bra. That makes the atmosphere quite different, as you are free of the crowds but still have the atmosphere. The arches of the arena loom above the end of the street, historic buildings lean in above you and tables under awnings in the street are set with white linen and gold gilt Venetian water goblets.
Verona sits in the middle of a rice-growing region and is therefore known for its risotto. But our friends who knew the town well went for another starch: bigoli. This is essentially very fat spaghetti, usually freshly made and rarely found outside local restaurants in this area. We enjoyed it here, and at several other spots. I did, however, observe a connection between the size of the restaurant and the bigoli. The smaller and more family-run the place appeared to be, the fatter the bigoli. The larger and more commercial, the more likely what’s called “bigoli” on the menu comes out looking like spaghetti.
This is also a region full of lakes, so duck appears on a lot of menus. Here, my husband had it in a confit-style leg. Pork, veal and horse are also quite common on the meat front. I had suckling pig here that had been brought to an almost pulled-pork consistency, covered with cheese sauce. Given that Verona is close to the mountains, dairy herds contribute a variety of local cheeses. It’s also a wine region, and locals seem very fond of cooking with the white Soave and the red Valpolicella. Given that this was once part of the Venetian empire, there are a lot of seafood dishes here from that city. If you’re avoiding animal protein, aubergine (eggplant) seems to be a favourite vegetable. In short, there’s a broad range of local specialities here and you’ll eat well at many places. Though at Tre Marchetti you’ll do it in a bit more style, with a more delicate and sophisticated touch to flavours and presentation.
Emanuele Cafe - This is perhaps a more obvious choice, given that it’s in the long run of restaurants on the Piazza Bra overlooking the arena. Note that this is not the Ristorante Vitorio Emanuele, closer to the statue of the king of the same name, but a spot two businesses down. We stopped here because they had a large selection of pizze bianche, an appealing option for my tomato-allergic husband. We liked it so much we returned for another dinner, and lingered here until closing time after we went to the opera.
Multi-page, laminated menus with multiple languages and a bit of everything are usually the warning of a tourist trap in Italy, but that wasn’t the case here. Other than the bigoli, which was too close to normal spaghetti to win our friends’ approval, the food was excellent. Pizzas here have hand-shaped sourdough bases that give that wonderful little acidic bite and erupt with air bubbles in the blazing pizza ovens. Local cheeses and a light but well-balanced touch with a wide range of ingredients offered options for everyone.
They demonstrated a more sophisticated touch with dishes like torta melanzane, a local delight that’s chunks of cooked tomatoes, on their way to sauce, enclosed in a parcel of thin aubergine slices that have been softened by cooking in oil, then served on a bed of burrata cheese. Vegetarian dishes don’t get much better than this.
El Cuciar gets an honourable mention. I only had one dish here so can’t offer an informed review, but their bigoli with a duck Raghu was fantastic. Most important for my day was that it’s directly across from the front of the duomo in an area where there’s little else around, I was dropping from exhaustion and they offered a shady table with a view of the cathedral’s medieval front porch, and quickly arrived with ice cold beer and equally chilled carafes of water. I sketched. I drank. I ate. They were happy to let me while away the heat of the day at the table. This is what the Italians call Dolce far Niente … the sweetness of doing nothing … and El Cuciar was a perfect spot to embrace it. If I were back in that part of town I’d definitely try it again.
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