The full story
The clearest line begins at Arco dei Gavi and follows the former Roman east-west axis through Porta Borsari toward Piazza delle Erbe, the old forum. Later buildings reused and enclosed this inherited plan rather than erasing it. The earthquake of 1117 helped shape a major Romanesque rebuilding, visible most powerfully at San Zeno. The Della Scala rulers added castles, bridges, tombs and defensive walls, while Venetian Verona commissioned Renaissance gates such as Porta Palio. Read these periods through contrasts in material and purpose: pale Roman stone, striped church masonry, brick battlements and formal classical gateways. Ponte Pietra compresses the story into one structure, with ancient fabric beside later reconstruction. A high view from Torre dei Lamberti or Giardino Giusti then shows how these fragments still fit within the modern city.