Trains to Verona

Verona is a major trading and commercial centre in the Adige Valley of northern Italy. Shakespeare and Verdi both did their bit to promote the local tourist industry. Crowds come year-round in search of traces of Romeo and Juliet. The numbers swell even more during the opera festival where Verdi’s Aida has become synonymous with the Verona summer. Even if you hate Shakespeare and cannot stand opera, Verona is still definitely worth a visit. You’ll find many Roman ruins, including the famous arena where Aida is performed. This stylish city offers first-class shopping, a lively club scene and a good range of onward train connections.

The main railway station in Verona is called Porta Nuova. From there, regular trains leave to a number of nearby cities: Mantua, Bologna, Vicenza and Padua are all less than an hour away. Fast trains to Venice and Milan both take just 70 minutes, with both Trenitalia and Italo competing on that major east-west axis in 2019. High-speed Trenitalia trains dash to Rome in under three hours, with Italo offering that route too, albeit with fewer departures than Trenitalia. Some of these Rome-bound trains continue further south to Naples.

Verona is thus an excellent base for exploring northern Italy. And it’s a good gateway city for rail travellers arriving from beyond Italy’s border. There are daily overnight trains from Paris and Vienna. And there are many EuroCity services crossing the Alps, providing direct links from Munich and Geneva to Verona. An innovation for 2018 was the introduction of a once-daily year-round direct train from Zurich to Verona. It is a mark of how Verona is now a star on the international circuit that the city even has a direct weekly train from Moscow.