Food History of Verona

Key eras

1. Roman colony: 89 BC to the Arena

   Verona became a Roman colonia in 89 BC and a municipium in 49 BC, and the Arena was completed around 30 AD. Italian Wikipedia places the city's first settlement nucleus on the left bank of the Adige, the later Veronetta, where the remains of the Roman theatre stand.

2. 489 AD: the pastissada legend

   Local legend ties pastissada de caval to the Battle of Verona of 489 between Theodoric the Ostrogoth and Odoacer, when the meat of the fallen horses was reused. A 2020 article in Studi Veronesi by Andrea Brugnoli questions that origin. The Comune di Verona's specification gives a different anchor: a long-cooked dish that dressed the gnocchi made by housewives of the San Zeno district.

   Taste it todayPastissada de caval

3. Scaligeri court: 1262 to 1387

   The della Scala family ruled Verona from Mastino I's election as capitano in 1262 until Antonio della Scala fled the city on 19 October 1387. Pasticceria Flego dates the nadalin recipe to this court, when the della Scala asked a pastry chef for a cake to represent their city, and Ristorante Greppia says the soppressa sausage seems to date back to the Scaligeri.

   Taste it todayNadalinPasticceria FlegoRistorante Greppia

4. 1531 famine and the Venerdi Gnocolar

   Tradition dates the Carnival Friday of the Venerdi Gnocolar to 1531, a famine year, when the San Zeno district was in unrest. Sources credit the doctor Tommaso da Vico, or a group of wealthy citizens, with distributing bread, flour and gnocchi to the poor. Today the day brings a parade to Piazza San Zeno and gnocchi stands, free to enter.

5. Venetian rule: 1405 to 1797

   Verona submitted to Venice in 1405 and stayed under the Republic until Napoleon ended it and occupied the city in 1797. The Lessinia plateau north of the city, where Monte Veronese cheese is made, also lay under the Republic.

6. Austrian rule: 1814 to 1866

   Verona returned to Austria after Napoleon's defeat in 1814, became part of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia and joined Italy in 1866. The Regione Veneto's tourism page says the tavern that became the Antica Bottega del Vino was the Osteria La Biedermeier in the Austro-Hungarian period and gives 1890 as its opening year.

   Taste it todayAntica Bottega del Vino

7. 14 October 1894: Melegatti's pandoro privilege

   Melegatti's own site says Domenico Melegatti received an industrial privilege certificate on 14 October 1894 from the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce of the Kingdom of Italy, covering the pandoro's name, shape and recipe. English Wikipedia gives 30 October; the company's date is used here.

   Taste it todayPandoro

8. 1996: Vialone Nano IGP

   Riso Nano Vialone Veronese received IGP status in 1996; production is limited to 24 municipalities of Verona province, including Isola della Scala. The variety has been grown in Italy since 1937. Risotto all'Amarone, made with this rice, is a candidate for the Comune di Verona's De.Co. mark.

   Taste it todayRisotto all'Amarone

9. 2011: the Amarone families take over the Bottega

   The Regione Veneto says the association of the Amarone families of Valpolicella took over the Antica Bottega del Vino in 2011, and Scatti di Gusto reports the reopening that year with the Famiglie dell'Amarone d'Arte and the rice firm Ferron as owners.

   Taste it todayAntica Bottega del Vino

10. 2025 to 2026: the three-star era

    Casa Perbellini 12 Apostoli took Verona's first three Michelin stars in the Guida Michelin Italia 2025, presented in Modena on 5 November 2024, and kept them in the 2026 guide presented in Parma on 19 November 2025. Famiglia Rana in Oppeano gained a second star in that 2026 guide under chef Francesco Sodano.

    Taste it todayCasa Perbellini 12 Apostoli

Immigrant influences

Cimbri (Lessinia uplands, Middle Ages)

Settlers of Bavarian and Tyrolean origin whose Germanic dialect survives at Giazza; sources date their arrival between the 11th and 13th centuries, with a settlement permit in 1287 near Roveré Veronese. They settled the Lessinia plateau, where Monte Veronese cheese is made.

Habsburg Austria (1814 to 1866)

The Regione Veneto's tourism page says the Antica Bottega del Vino was the Osteria La Biedermeier under Austro-Hungarian rule, before it became a restaurant after the Second World War.

Taste it todayAntica Bottega del Vino

Southern Italian (Naples, 20th century)

The Rasulo family, from Naples, opened the Grottina in Veronetta, which Pizzeria da Salvatore calls Verona's first historic pizzeria, and Pizzeria da Salvatore in December 1961; it moved to Piazza San Tomaso in August 2000.

Taste it todayPizzeria Da Salvatore

Signature innovations

• Pandoro: Melegatti's industrial privilege of 14 October 1894 for the eight-pointed Christmas cake
  Taste it todayPandoro
• Nadalin: the older Verona Christmas cake, dated by Flego to the Della Scala court
  Taste it todayNadalin
• Pastissada de caval: long-cooked horse stew, a Comune di Verona De.Co. dish
  Taste it todayPastissada de caval
• Pearà: the bread, marrow and pepper sauce for boiled meats, a De.Co. dish
  Taste it todayPearà
• Gnocchi di Verona: potato gnocchi with a De.Co. specification of their own
• Venerdi Gnocolar: Carnival Friday gnocchi in Piazza San Zeno, dated to 1531
• Baci di Giulietta e Romeo: two almond-and-hazelnut shells joined as hearts, as Flego describes them
  Taste it todayBaci di Giulietta