Padua to Verona and Sirmione: Private day trip

If you’re a fan of Juliet, one must visit the backdrop for the play’s most famous love scene - Juliet’s balcony. Other than the tale of an ill-fated love, Verona is a destination of art, opera, and urban architecture. Take time to go up the lift to the Lamberti tower and see the sweeping views of the red rooftops. Order some gelato and take a brisk stroll down the infamous shopping avenue, Corso Porta Borsari. The real heartstopper is the entrance to the street. Its gate is called the ‘Gate of Borsari’ - made with limestone, corinthian capitals, and 2 pediments that predates the 1st century A.D. Abundant in Roman ruins, Verona is full of history, charm, and beauty.

Wedged at the end of a finger-thin peninsula, Sirmione has been a resort destination since the 1st century BC, when rich families from Verona began building villas on the lake shore. The town’s aggressive position also made it a military stronghold for almost the entirety of modern history, with a garrison occupying the castle into the 19th century. To this day, you can still explore the ruins of a Roman villa, and the town itself is dominated by one of Italy’s best-preserved medieval castles, complete with a rare port fortification. turn attracting writers for the past 2000 years. Poet Gaius Valerius Catullus had a villa here in the 1st century, Alfred Tennyson, Giosuè Carducci wrote about it, and Ezra Pound and James Joyce met in Sirmione. If you’re thinking that there must be something in the water that’s attracting so many writers, you’d be right - Sirmione natural hot springs!