Giardino Giusti in Verona: opening hours, tickets and what to see in the city’s most famous garden

On the left bank of the Adige, a ten-minute walk from the historic centre, there is a place Goethe described in his “Italian Journey”, Mozart visited as a young man, and a seventeenth-century English traveller called “a second paradise”. Most visitors to Verona never get there: they stay on the other bank, between the Arena and Piazza delle Erbe. It is the biggest mistake they make.

Giardino Giusti is one of the most important Italian Renaissance gardens in Europe, and a designated National Monument. Laid out in the second half of the sixteenth century and still looked after by the same family, it has kept all of its original features intact: a maze you can still walk, grottoes, fountains, cypresses as tall as towers, mythological statues, a mask-shaped belvedere and one of the finest views over Verona.

To discover our full itinerary, read our article on what to see in Verona in one day.

Opening hours and practical information

essential information (updated July 2026):

• Address: Via Giardino Giusti 2, Verona (Veronetta district, left bank of the Adige)
• Summer hours (Apr–Oct): 9:00am – 7:00pm (last entry 6:00pm)
• Winter hours (Nov–Mar): 10:00am – 5:00pm (last entry 4:00pm)
• Closed: Only on 25 December. We recommend checking the website for any extraordinary closures before you go.
• Pets: Allowed on a lead
• Accessibility: The first level is flat and accessible. The second and third levels have steps and changes in height. The palazzo has no lift.
• Tickets: At the ticket office or online at giardinogiusti.com
• On foot from the centre: 10 minutes from Piazza delle Erbe, crossing Ponte Pietra or Ponte Navi

Tickets and prices 2026

Buy your ticket on the official website: giardinogiusti.com

A sixteenth-century garden that saw half the Grand Tour go by

The Giusti family came to Verona from Tuscany at the end of the thirteenth century to develop the wool-dyeing industry, then the city’s main source of wealth. In the second half of the sixteenth century Count Agostino Giusti — a knight of the Venetian Republic and gentleman to the Grand Duke of Tuscany — turned the fields behind the palazzo into a terraced Italian garden, designed to reveal Verona to the eye little by little, along a predetermined route.

The design has stayed the same: at the bottom, the formal parterre with its box hedges and mythological statues. Then the cypress avenue climbing steeply towards the grotto and the mask. And finally the belvedere at the top, with the city at your feet.

With the European Grand Tour of the eighteenth century, the garden became an essential stop for anyone passing through Verona. Documented visitors include Goethe in 1786, Mozart, Tsar Alexander I of Russia, Emperor Joseph II of Austria and Cosimo III de’ Medici. Back in 1611 the English traveller Thomas Coryat had called it “a second paradise”, and he was right.

What you’ll see: the route from bottom to top

The garden is laid out on three levels linked by steps and paths. The route climbs from the formal parterre to the belvedere at the top, with the view over the city opening up gradually. Each level has something specific to look out for.

The lower level: the parterre and the maze

The entrance level is the most formal: geometric box hedges, stone mythological statues and potted citrus trees arranged according to sixteenth-century tradition. At the centre is the parterre with five statues of Olympian gods. On the right-hand side is the box maze, redesigned in 1786 by the Veronese architect Luigi Trezza but already part of the original sixteenth-century layout: it is listed among the oldest in Europe and can still be walked today.

The middle level: the cypresses and the grotto

The famous avenue of tall, slender cypresses climbs the side of the hill towards the stalactite grotto, whose vault still preserves remains of the original decoration of shells, coral, mother-of-pearl and sponges. The grotto’s walls were originally lined with mirrors and frescoes. Among the cypresses you will also find Roman finds from the collection assembled by Agostino Giusti: inscriptions, architectural fragments and tombstones.

The upper level: the mask and the belvedere

At the top of the route, above the grotto, stands the mask-belvedere, attributed to the sculptor Bartolomeo Ridolfi. It was designed to breathe tongues of fire and smoke from its mouth to astonish visitors. The belvedere offers one of the finest views over Verona: the Adige, the rooftops, the Arena in the distance and the Valpolicella hills in the background.

Goethe’s cypress: in the entrance courtyard stood a cypress more than six hundred years old, which Goethe admired in 1786 and mentioned in his “Italian Journey”, published in 1817. On 23 August 2020 a violent storm brought it down. Today its remains and its memory are all that is left.

The Appartamento 900: the palazzo reopened to the public

As well as the garden, the full ticket includes a visit to the Appartamento 900: the part of the sixteenth-century palazzo where the Giusti family lived, recently reopened to the public. The rooms hold frescoes, antique furniture and art collections from different periods, and tell seven centuries of history of the same family that has kept the garden to this day. It is one of those rare places where the story of a private family and the story of the city are one and the same.

When to go and how to plan your visit

The garden is beautiful in every season, but some moments are especially striking:

• Spring (April–May) — the best time for blossom and light. Less crowded than summer.
• Summer (June–August) — open until 7pm, with the best light in the late afternoon. The only drawback: the heat in the middle of the day.
• Autumn (September–October) — the cypresses change tone, the light is excellent and there are fewer visitors.
• Winter (November–March) — shorter hours (10am–5pm), but the garden is almost always empty and the atmosphere is unique.

The very best time: late afternoon in spring or autumn. The low, slanting light brings out the colours of the stone and the greenery, and from the belvedere Verona appears in a palette you won’t forget. Allow at least 90 minutes to explore the garden at a relaxed pace and climb to the top.

How to get to Giardino Giusti

Via Giardino Giusti 2, Verona:

• On foot from Piazza delle Erbe: 10 minutes north-east across Ponte Pietra, then along the riverside
• On foot from Ponte Pietra: 5 minutes east on the left bank of the river
• On foot from the Roman Theatre: 3 minutes east
• Parking: Restricted traffic zone (ZTL) — recommended car park: Piazza Isolo (left bank, 5 min on foot)
• Bus: AMT lines stopping in the Veronetta area