Verona

City in northern Italy at the foot of the Lessini Mountains on the River Adige. The city was founded by an ancient tribe (possibly the Euganei or Raeti) and was later occupied by the Gallic Cenomani. It became a Roman colony in 89 BC and rapidly rose in importance because it was at the junction of main roads between Italy and northern Europe. There are two large gateways dating from 1st century AD, a theater, and the Arena, the third-largest surviving Roman amphitheater.

Situated on the River Adige in Veneto, northern Italy, Verona was a principal city of imperial Roman Venetia, and has well-preserved monuments from that period. Little is known of the pre-Roman settlement, but an origin as a Celtic foundation of the 5th-4th centuries bc is likely. The town is well-placed in a fertile, wine-growing plain, and Roman imperial prosperity is clearly attested in epigraphical and literary sources. This success attracted not only later Emperors but also, in due course, the Lombards. Noteworthy are an Augustan-period theatre and, probably commenced at about the same time, a vast amphitheatre, possibly second only to the Colosseum at Rome in size and degree of preservation. Recent rescue excavations have explored late Roman and medieval structures.