Verona Arena

The Verona Arena can accommodate over 15,000 spectators for modern opera performances, making it one of the largest open-air opera venues in the world. The Arena di Verona Opera Festival has run there every summer since 1913, when it opened with a centenary production of Verdi's Aida to celebrate the composer's birth.

The festival is most closely associated with grand-scale Verdi operas, especially Aida and Nabucco, whose massive choruses suit the arena setting. Puccini's Tosca and Turandot are also regular features of the summer season, which typically runs from June through August or September.

A major earthquake in 1117 destroyed the outer ring of the arena, leaving only four arches of the original façade standing on the south side. The inner seating area (the cavea) was restored over the centuries and remains in active use today, while the Colosseum in Rome retains more of its complete elliptical structure.

The Verona Arena was completed around AD 30, making it roughly half a century older than the Colosseum in Rome, which was completed around AD 80 under Emperor Titus. It is the third-largest Roman amphitheatre surviving today after the Colosseum and the Amphitheatre of Capua.