Piazza Bra, Verona

Piazza Bra' is the most known square of Verona, because it is where the Arena lies. This picture, taken from inside the Arena, shows the liston, i.e. the part of Venetian squares adhibited to walks.

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Piazza Bra is the pivotal point of the modern city, not only for the famous Arena, but also for many palaces that carry the names of the most important Veronese families.
Museum of Stones [18th century] is located near the Bra Gates;
Gran Guardia Palace [17th century] was planned by Domenico Curtoni;
Palazzo Barbieri (City Hall) was planned by the architect Barbierithe in neocalssic style;
Located to the north-west is the Liston with its Ottoman buildings between which the Guastaverza, one of the works of Michele Sanmicheli, stands out;
In the middle of the square is a large area of grass and flowers with statues in memory of Victor Emmanuel III [1883] and the Monument Partigiano (Partisan) del Salazzari.

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Piazza Bra's the largest square in Verona, with public gardens, containing a statue of King Victor Emmanuel II erected in 1883 and a statue commemorating the Partisan, and a lot of important buildings such as the Palazzo della Gran Guardia (1610), Palazzo Barbieri (1838) with the Town Hall offices, and the Amphitheatre.

So, my advice for you would be to take a walk through the town centre and enjoy the surroundings.

Here you find the Arena, lots of restaurants, the City Hall and the statue of Victor Emanuelle II.
But instead of sitting in a restaurant, I just bought a pizza, a coke and sat down under the trees of the Piazza enjoying the sun and watching people come and go, just like a picnic.
As I was so relaxed and entertained by the landscape that I forgot to take a picture of the Piazza, but I put this one!

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There are a number of eating and sipping places along the square. During our visit it was not very crowded; it was raining. I could tell that it would get rather full during a normal tourist season day. The prices here are steep, because of the access by the entry to old city and adjacent to the arena.

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The heart of the Veronese beats in Piazza Bra and not simply because the world-famous Arena is the piazza's centrepiece. Walking in piazza Bra after a while you get used to the sight of it and tend not to notice it any more. The 'liston' of the Piazza Bra, or the paving stones laid in 1770 to facilitate the elegant passage of the bourgeoisie, is what saved it from mediocrity at the end of the 1700's. Today the piazza is crowned with many palaces that carry the names of the most important Veronese families.

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This historic theater was built on the Via Roma, at one corner of the Piazza Bra, starting in 1716. For three decades it was the city's opera house, until it burned down (set on fire by a forgotten torch) on the night of January 21st, 1749. But it was rebuilt, and reopened in 1754.

191 years later the theater was destroyed again, this time by an air raid on February 23rd, 1945. But again it was rebuilt, and was reopened in 1975.

Today the Filarmonico is not only an opera venue. Besides operas, they put on numerous other musical events such as concerts and ballets. There are no performances there during the summer, but I did notice an orchestra rehearsal going on there.

Second photo: Entrance to the box office on Via Roma (with bicycles).

Third photo: Colonnade of the Teatro Filarmonico on Via Roma.

Fourth photo: Back of the Teatro Filarmonico.

Fifth photo: Stage entrance.

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In 2006 I unfortunately didn't see the new production of Puccini's Tosca, which is too bad because it was highly praised by the critics. The staging, set design, costumes and lighting for Tosca were all by Hugo de Ana (not Zeffirelli).

While other operas were being performed, they stored parts of the Tosca stage set out on Piazza Bra. (The building in the background is called the Gran Guardia, by the way.)

Second photo: Parts of the Tosca stage, from above.

Third photo: Evidently they used this wooden wagon in Tosca.

Fourth and fifth photos: Cannons and other stage elements from Tosca.