Veneto Itinerary 7 Days: Verona, Lake Garda, Padua and the Dolomites

About 1h15, 12 euros, open Tuesday to Sunday 8.30am to 7.30pm and on Monday from 1.30pm. It is a 15 minute walk from Porta Nuova station to Piazza Bra, which is where this itinerary begins.

Built in the 1st century, it holds around 15,000 people and is still in use: from June to early September it hosts the opera festival, and on show days it closes to visitors in the early afternoon. Climb to the top row of steps for the view over the square and the rooftops.

Quick stop, 30 minutes, free, a 10 minute walk along Via Mazzini, the shopping street off Piazza Bra. It was the Roman forum and is still a market square, ringed by frescoed houses and the baroque Palazzo Maffei.

The 84 metre Torre dei Lamberti stands right on the square and has a lift most of the way up. Juliet's House is five minutes away, and here is the honest advice: the balcony was added in the 1930s for tourists and the courtyard is permanently jammed. If time is short, skip it.

Quick stop, 20 minutes, free, an 8 minute walk north of Piazza delle Erbe. It is Verona's oldest bridge: retreating German troops blew it up in 1945 and it was reassembled in the 1950s with the stones residents pulled out of the Adige.

Cross to the left bank: the climb to the lookout starts right on the other side.

About an hour, starting from the end of Ponte Pietra. The funicular takes one minute and costs 2 euros one way or 3 return, running until 9pm from April to October; on foot it is about 150 steps.

It is the best lookout in the city and the reason Day 1 ends here: the sun sets behind the rooftops, the cathedral bell tower and the bends of the Adige. Walk down for dinner on the left bank in Veronetta, cheaper than the centre.

About 2h30 including the ride down, 27 euros return or 25 online. Pick up the rental car early in Verona: Malcesine is 1h15 along the shore, and the day starts at its northernmost point so you can work south without doubling back.

There are two sections, and the upper one has cabins that rotate 360 degrees on the way up. At the top the whole lake appears, long and narrow like a fjord, with the Alps to the north. Be there at opening time: in summer and at weekends the afternoon queue runs past an hour.

About an hour, paid entry, a 10 minute walk from the cable car station down through the old town. The Della Scala castle sits on a rock dropping straight into the water, and from the tower you look down on the Malcesine waterfront.

In 1786 Goethe was nearly arrested here as an Austrian spy for sketching the fortifications; a small room tells the story. Have lunch in Malcesine before heading south.

About an hour, 30 minutes by car south of Malcesine. Park up top and walk down the cypress avenue to the tiny harbour, with a 16th century inn and boats moored in front.

Next door is the Baia delle Sirene, a pebble beach in an olive grove with paid entry. On a hot day it is the best place on this route to swim in the lake.

Quick stop, one hour, free, 20 minutes south of San Vigilio and 30 minutes from Verona, where the day ends. The walled village has a harbour of wooden boats, the church of San Nicolò and the Dogana Veneta, the old customs house of the Venetian Republic.

It is the right place for a lakeside aperitivo before driving back to the hotel.

Quick stop, 45 minutes, free from outside, before hitting the road. The red brick castle of 1354 has a crenellated bridge over the Adige that you can walk across, and it is the best photo in Verona in the morning.

Inside is an art museum redesigned by Carlo Scarpa, with paid entry; give it another hour if modern architecture interests you.

Quick stop, 30 minutes, 50 minutes by car from Verona, on the southeast edge of Vicenza before you enter the centre. It is the villa with four identical temple fronts that inspired Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and half the neoclassical mansions in the world.

It is closed on Monday, and the interior opens only on some days of the week, with shorter hours off season: check the official site first. Even when closed, the view of the facade from the access lane is worth the stop.

About an hour, 12 euros, open Tuesday to Sunday 9am to 5pm in September, no booking needed for individual visitors. Park at Parcheggio Canove next door and start here, at the eastern end of Corso Palladio.

It is the oldest surviving indoor theatre in the world still in use, and Palladio's last design. The set is fixed: seven streets in wood and stucco that seem to recede for dozens of metres but are only a few metres deep, an optical illusion built for the opening production of Oedipus Rex. If you plan to see more than one museum in town, the card covering 11 sites costs 22 euros.

Quick stop, 45 minutes, a 5 minute walk down Corso Palladio. It is not a church: it is the old town hall that Palladio wrapped in two tiers of white marble loggias, under a green copper roof shaped like an upturned hull.

Have lunch on the square and drive on to Padua, 40 minutes on the motorway. In the evening, aperitivo is on Padua's Piazza delle Erbe, where spritz is an everyday drink.

About an hour in total, 15 euros plus 1 euro booking fee, and booking is mandatory: buy days ahead on the official site, because same day slots rarely remain. Arrive 30 minutes early; if you are late you lose the slot.

The visit is 15 minutes in a room that stabilises humidity and 15 more inside the chapel, painted floor to ceiling by Giotto around 1305, with its starry blue vault and the Last Judgement. The minutes are counted, and it is the most important fresco cycle of the 14th century in Europe.

Quick stop, 30 minutes, a 7 minute walk south of the chapel. Opened in 1831, it became known as the café without doors because it did not close even at night.

Order the caffè Pedrocchi, espresso with mint cream and cocoa on top, and drink it at the bar, which costs less than at a table.

About an hour, paid entry, two minutes from the café. The medieval law court of 1219 has an 81 metre hall on the upper floor painted with more than 300 frescoes of zodiac signs and planets, and a giant wooden horse in one corner.

Below, Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta hold a market every morning, and the ground floor stalls have sold cheese and cured meats since the Middle Ages. Padua is also where Aperol was born in 1919, and aperitivo here is almost a ritual.

About an hour, free, a 10 minute walk south. The eight domed basilica holds the tomb of Saint Anthony, born in Lisbon and died in Padua in 1231, and pilgrims queue all day. Cover shoulders and knees.

The high altar has bronzes by Donatello, and the equestrian statue of Gattamelata on the square is his too. Five minutes away is the Orto Botanico, the oldest university botanical garden in the world, from 1545, if you have an hour to spare.

Quick stop, 30 minutes, free, a 5 minute walk from the basilica. It is one of the largest squares in Europe: a green elliptical island ringed by a canal lined with 78 statues of notable Paduans.

In the late afternoon students take over the lawn. It is the right way to end the day before dinner.

About an hour, paid entry, 40 minutes by car north of Padua. It is one of the few walled towns in Europe with its entire ring still standing: an ellipse from 1220 with a moat, four gates and a rampart walk of about 1.5 km open to visitors.

Hardly anyone visiting the Veneto has heard of it, so the walk is usually empty. Park outside the walls near Porta Padova.

Quick stop, 45 minutes, 25 minutes by car north of Cittadella. The covered wooden bridge over the Brenta follows Palladio's 1569 design and was rebuilt after every war, the last time by the Alpine troops who gave it its name.

At the end of the bridge is a grappa bar from 1779 serving local grappa and its house aperitivo, the mezzo e mezzo. Make it a sip, not a lunch: there is still road ahead.

About 1h30, 40 minutes east of Bassano, in Santo Stefano di Valdobbiadene. The Conegliano and Valdobbiadene hills became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, and Cartizze, just 107 hectares, is the most expensive vineyard in the appellation.

The narrow road climbs between rows that look combed. At the top is an unstaffed osteria where you help yourself to wine, salami and cheese and leave the money in a box. Drivers should taste lightly: from Valdobbiadene to Cortina it is 2 hours of mountain road.

Quick stop, 20 minutes, 25 minutes by car from Cortina over the Passo Tre Croci. The lake at 1,754 metres reflects the Sorapiss massif and sits just before the toll road to the Tre Cime.

Stop on the south shore, where the photo catches still water with the mountains behind.

Half a day, with 3h30 to 4 hours of walking. The road up to Rifugio Auronzo has a toll of 40 euros per car, and since May 2026 only cars with a time slot booked online on the official Auronzo site get in; the ticket is valid for 12 hours. The road is open from late May to October.

The loop is about 10 km with little climbing: from Rifugio Auronzo at 2,320 metres the trail passes Rifugio Lavaredo and rises to Rifugio Locatelli, facing the north walls of the three peaks, the classic image of the Dolomites. Bring a jacket even in summer.

Quick stop, one hour, free. Cortina's pedestrian street, co-host with Milan of the 2026 Winter Olympics, has shops, cafés and the nearly 70 metre bell tower of the basilica of Saints Philip and James.

Have casunziei for dinner, the local pasta filled with beetroot, in one of the restaurants on the street or at a rifugio on the Passo Falzarego road.

About 45 minutes, free, 2 hours by car from Cortina and 30 minutes from Marco Polo airport, where the car is returned. The square is dominated by the crenellated Palazzo dei Trecento and arcades lined with cafés.

Treviso calls itself the home of tiramisù, and the dispute with Friuli over who invented it never ends. Order one here, in the city that is proudest of it.

Quick stop, 20 minutes, free, a 3 minute walk from the square. The canal is named after the fishermen from Burano who came to sell fish in Treviso, and it is lined with arcaded houses and faded frescoes.

The best view is from the little iron footbridge in the middle.

Quick stop, 20 minutes, free, just past the end of the canal. Since 1856 the fish market has been held on a small island in the river Cagnan, open in the morning from Tuesday to Saturday.

After 1pm the stalls close and the island becomes a shady square. The airport is 30 minutes away.