City ofVerona.

Verona's largest Gothic church (begun 1290, never fully completed — the facade is still bare brick) contains one of the greatest frescoes of the International Gothic style: Pisanello's Saint George and the Princess (c.1433–38), a panel above the Pellegrini chapel doorway showing a knight preparing to fight a dragon, with the most detailed rendering of late medieval armour and horse equipment in existence. The two hunchback holy water stoups at the entrance (I Gobbi — the Hunchbacks) are famous Veronese eccentricities.

Via Sottoriva is a medieval arcaded street running along the south bank of the Adige — its name means "under the bank." Low medieval arches shelter the pavement from the rain; the houses above lean slightly toward the river; the bars and trattorie under the arches serve students from the adjacent university and locals who know better than to eat on Piazza delle Erbe. The street has the specific quality of being unremarkable to residents and extraordinary to anyone arriving from the tourist centre 200 metres away.

The Valpolicella Classica zone — the hills northwest of Verona producing Amarone della Valpolicella, the most intense red wine in Italy — is 30 minutes by car. The villages of Sant'Ambrogio, San Pietro in Cariano and Fumane sit among terraced vineyards of Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara grapes. The Amarone process (drying the grapes on bamboo racks for 90–120 days before fermentation) produces a wine of 15–17% alcohol and extraordinary complexity. Allegrini, Masi and Bertani all have tasting rooms open to visitors. The landscape — steep terraced hills, Roman-era farm buildings, the plain of Verona below — is as fine as anything in Tuscany.

Lake Garda is 30 minutes west of Verona — the largest lake in Italy, 52km long, with a southern shore of flat Venetian plain (vineyards, olive groves, Bardolino and Lugana wine) and a northern shore closing into Alpine fjord scenery with cliffs dropping to the water. Sirmione (Roman villa of Catullus, a Scaligeri castle on a narrow peninsula) is the essential stop. The ferry system connects all shore towns. Malcesine on the east shore (cable car to Monte Baldo, 1760m, paragliders launching over the lake) is the most dramatic landscape available.