Verona

Start with the hard truth about the "Casa di Giulietta": the balcony is a 20th-century tourist construction, not a medieval relic. Verona trades hard on the Romeo and Juliet myth, and the real city is better than the myth. Looped by the river Adige, the historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 2000); its emblem, the 1st-century-AD Roman Arena, is the third-largest surviving Roman amphitheatre in Italy and still hosts a major summer opera festival. The della Scala (Scaligeri) lords, who ruled in the 14th century, left the fortress-palace Castelvecchio (1354) and its fortified bridge; the castle is now a superb civic museum holding Mantegna, Bellini, Pisanello and Veronese. The Roman Ponte Pietra (1st century BC, faithfully rebuilt after the Second World War) crosses to the quieter left bank. The city's real depth is Roman, Romanesque (above all the great Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore) and Scaligeri. And at its gates lie three quiet hinterlands: the Valpolicella, home of Amarone, the red wine made from dried grapes; the Soave wine hills; and the Lessinia plateau above.

This is the one busy, over-touristed city the platform covers, so the editorial job is plain. Cross to Veronetta and the left bank. Climb to Castel San Pietro at dusk. Treat the Arena as architecture by day. Spend a full day in the Valpolicella instead of queueing at a fake balcony. The redistribution of your time and money is the point.

April to early June, and late September into October. This is the critical timing decision of any Verona trip. The Arena opera festival runs roughly mid-June to early September, bringing peak crowds and peak prices, and the centre is then at its most pressed. Either side of the festival, the city breathes. The Valpolicella is in or near harvest (the vendemmia falls late September into October, with the appassimento grape-drying beginning afterwards), the trattorie are run for locals again, and the squares are walkable. Avoid the July and August midday heat and crush unless you specifically want the opera; in that case book far ahead and accept the premium. Winter is cold but calm. Castelvecchio and San Zeno sit close to empty, and the wine cellars work on the year's Amarone.

By rail, ideally. Verona Porta Nuova is a major junction on both the Milan–Venice line and the Brenner corridor (Bologna–Verona–Innsbruck/Munich), which makes it one of the best-connected cities in northern Italy. Milano Centrale is around 1h10–1h28 away, with roughly 30 trains a day; Venezia is about 58 minutes to 1h03, with around 32 trains a day; Bologna is a direct 50 minutes to an hour (check current times). International trains arrive from Austria and Germany over the Brenner, so Verona works as a car-free gateway from north of the Alps. From Porta Nuova the centre and Arena are a 20-minute walk or a short bus ride. By car, Verona sits off the A4 (Milan–Venice) and A22 (Brenner) motorways, but a car is a hindrance in the city's large ZTL. Keep it for the Valpolicella hills if at all; the wine country is also reachable by local bus, by guided cellar transfer, by organised tour (check connections).

Where you sleep is part of the slow strategy. To experience the lived-in city, base yourself in Veronetta, the university district on the left bank, where B&Bs and guesthouses sit among cheaper trattorie and far fewer tourists (check options). For a hinterland night that fits the destination, the agriturismi and wine estates of the Valpolicella let you sleep among the vines and tour a working fruttaio in the morning. No better antidote to the centre's crush exists. Central historic options remain: Hotel Gabbia d'Oro is a small historic luxury hotel in the centre, and Albergo Aurora is a long-standing independent on Piazza Erbe (confirm it still operates), but both sit in the busiest, priciest quarter. In the opera season especially, basing yourself in Veronetta or out in the Valpolicella saves money and moves your impact away from the overloaded core.

Verona's table is built on its wines. Learn Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG first, then the lighter Valpolicella and Ripasso reds; add the white Soave DOC and the sweet Recioto. The signature dishes follow: risotto all'Amarone, cooked with the great red, and risotto al tastasal; bigoli, the thick local pasta, with duck or anchovy ragù. Pastissada de caval is the traditional Veronese horse-meat stew, flagged here as traditional and entirely optional. Ask for Monte Veronese DOP, the cheese of the Lessinia plateau. Pandoro, the Christmas cake, was born in Verona, and the Lessinia hills add honey and chestnuts. Eat in Veronetta or out in the wine villages, not in the Arena-side tourist traps, and pair a real Valpolicella with a plate the city actually eats. The slow lesson: the wine and the food belong to the hills, not the souvenir stalls.

Cross the Ponte Pietra to the left bank and climb to Castel San Pietro for the city panorama at golden hour. At the foot of that climb sits the Museo Archeologico al Teatro Romano on Regaste Redentore, a convent building stacked above the first-century theatre, and the two are one visit; from mid-June the Estate Teatrale Veronese fills the same theatre with Shakespeare, music and dance, an alternative to the Arena that costs a fraction as much. Explore Veronetta, the university quarter, with its cheaper trattorie and far fewer crowds, and step into Santa Maria in Organo while you are there for the inlaid choir and sacristy of Fra Giovanni da Verona, work that Vasari called the finest sacristy in Italy.

Walk out to the Romanesque Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore on the western edge, much calmer than the centre, for the Mantegna altarpiece and the famous bronze doors. The Castelvecchio museum repays a slow visit. On Piazza Erbe, Palazzo Maffei is the newest reason to linger in the centre: the Luigi Carlon collection, more than seven hundred works across four millennia arranged as a cabinet of curiosities, from Renaissance and Baroque painting to Italian Futurism, Hokusai and Lucio Fontana. The Giardino Giusti, a Renaissance garden, is a quiet refuge. And treat the Roman Arena as architecture by day. Admire the structure, skip the queue for the obvious, and pass the manufactured “Juliet's balcony” without adding to its defacement, or give it a miss entirely.

Give a full day to the Valpolicella for an Amarone cellar visit and a look at the drying-loft (fruttaio) craft that defines the wine. Give another to the Lessinia plateau above the city, where the limestone opens out into pasture and stone-roofed contrade. At Bolca, on its eastern edge, the fossil museum holds more than five hundred Middle Eocene specimens — fish above all, but also crustaceans, insects, palms and coconuts, from around fifty million years ago — and the Pesciara quarry gallery below the village can be walked, with sieving for small fossils. Both have been running to restricted arrangements lately, the museum closed for maintenance and the gallery on a seasonal weekend timetable, so check locally before going. The Ponte di Veja, the great natural rock arch above Sant'Anna d'Alfaedo, is the other Lessinia set piece; its approach path has been closed for safety works, so check with the park authority first.

• Language: Italian, with strong tourist-English in the centre
• Currency: euro
• Getting around: The centre is walkable but sits inside a large ZTL; do not drive in
• Money: The Verona Card covers many sites and can save money if you visit several
• Money: Opera-season prices spike sharply across hotels and restaurants; budget and book accordingly, or come in spring or autumn
• Money: ATMs and card acceptance are normal; carry some cash for the wine villages and small producers
• Nearest major hospital: Verona (Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata di Verona)