Giardino Giusti
Hidden behind a 16th-century palazzo in the quiet neighbourhood of Veronetta, Giardino Giusti is one of Italy's finest Renaissance gardens — a terraced hillside of clipped box hedges, lemon trees in terracotta pots, grotesque stone masks and a cypress alley so tall and dark it feels like a cathedral nave.
Exploring the garden's two worlds
The lower garden is formal and geometric: symmetrical parterres, a central fountain, and the famous cypress avenue planted in the 1570s that Goethe described in his Italian Journey as 'the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.' The cypresses are now over 40 metres tall and create a tunnel of shadow even on the brightest afternoon.
The upper garden is wilder and more romantic, climbing the hillside through terraces of rose bushes, pomegranate trees and ancient ilex oaks. A stone grotto at the base of the cliff is carved with grotesque masks — one of which, according to legend, would snap shut on the heads of sinners who dared to put their face inside.
The view from the top
A steep path leads to a belvedere at the summit of the garden, level with the rooftops of Veronetta and offering a different angle on the city from the more famous Castel San Pietro viewpoint — quieter, greener and framed by cypress tips.
The palazzo attached to the garden is still privately owned by the Giusti family and not open to the public, which only adds to the sense that you've been let into someone's extraordinary private world.
Getting there and combining with Veronetta
The garden is a 15-minute walk from the Arena across Ponte Navi or Ponte Nuovo. The surrounding neighbourhood of Veronetta is Verona's student quarter, full of independent bookshops, small wine bars and the kind of ungentrified street life that the historic centre has largely traded away for tourism.
After the garden, walk south along Via XX Settembre to find a cluster of excellent enotecas and the covered market hall of Mercato Coperto, which sells local cheese, salumi and wine to a predominantly local clientele.
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