Giardino Giusti

The Giusti garden lies behind a palace on the left bank of the Adige, a few minutes from the Roman theatre, and it is one of the finest surviving Italian Renaissance gardens.

It was laid out from the 1570s and has the classic structure: a formal lower garden of box parterres on the flat, an avenue of cypresses running straight up the axis, and then a wooded hillside climbing to a belvedere over Verona.

Halfway up, a grotesque stone mask stares down the avenue. It once breathed fire, which tells you most of what you need to know about what this garden was for.

This is a privately owned garden, maintained on its admission income after more than four centuries in one family. The ticket is the point -- it is what keeps it.

Keep to the paths and gravel walks. The box parterres are clipped hedging that recovers slowly, and the hillside erodes where people cut corners.

The 2020 storm damage is still being made good and young trees are establishing. Do not climb on terraces, walls or the mascherone.

Do not pick anything, including citrus from the pots.

The garden is small and quiet by design. Coming outside the busiest hours preserves what it is actually for.

The garden charges admission -- higher than most of Verona's church tickets, since it is privately owned and maintained -- and is included in the Verona Card.

It is about a ten-minute walk from Ponte Nuovo or Ponte Pietra, on the same bank as the Roman theatre and easily combined with it.

Opening hours are seasonal, closing earlier in winter. It can close in high wind, given the trees.

Allow an hour, or longer if you climb slowly and sit at the top.

The lower garden is level and accessible. The upper garden, the belvedere and the grottoes are reached by steep steps and rough paths and are not accessible.

There is little shade on the climb; bring water in summer.