Where to stay in Verona & Lake Garda

A handsome Roman city with an opera season in its own amphitheatre, at the bottom end of Lake Garda. Works as a base for both, and as an easy stop between Milan and Venice.

Verona's old town fills a tight loop of the Adige, and the loop is where to sleep: the Arena at the bottom, Piazza delle Erbe in the middle, the Duomo at the top, and Veronetta over the river for cheaper rooms. On the lake, Peschiera and Desenzano have the railway, Sirmione has the crowds and one road in, Lazise and Bardolino the gentle family shore, and distant Malcesine the wind and the ferries.

The Arena season runs from June into September and peaks in July and August, when performances start after dark on stone steps and end past midnight. The centre is a camera-enforced ZTL, so a hire car needs the hotel to register its plate, and in Sirmione only residents and hotel guests may drive past the castle drawbridge.

Two nights in the city, then two or three on the water, the easier place to finish. Regionali reach Peschiera in a quarter of an hour, buses run on to Sirmione, Lazise and Bardolino, and in summer the boats run the whole lake to Malcesine. Frecciarossa and Italo stop here. Sirmione is quiet before ten and after six.

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