Food History of Verona

Key eras

Roman crossroads: the Adige bridge and the grain road

Verona was founded around 89 BC at the only practical Adige crossing between the Brenner pass and the Po valley, which made it the grain market for Northern Italy under the Empire. The Roman Arena built around 30 AD and the river port set the food map that still runs today: bread, wine and salt traded through the city centre.

489 AD: the pastissada legend

After the Battle of Verona in 489 AD between Theodoric the Ostrogoth and Odoacer's Romans, the soldiers on the plain outside the walls reputedly preserved fallen horses in red wine and spices to stop them spoiling. The result is pastissada de caval, the horse-meat stew marinated 24 hours in Valpolicella, still the city's most identifiably medieval dish.

Scaligeri court: 1260 to 1387

The della Scala family ruled Verona for 127 years and built the court kitchens that codified the canonical Veronese plates: bigoli through the bigolaro press, risotto with the local rice from the Isola della Scala plain, and the bollito misto with peppery pearà bread sauce that became Sunday lunch. The Roman bridge at Ponte Pietra, the Scaliger castles and the Tombs of the Scaligeri all bear the family arms.

1531 famine and the Bacanal del Gnoco

In 1531 the Veronese physician and nobleman Tommaso Da Vico distributed free bowls of gnocchi to the starving poor of the San Zeno district during the late-winter famine. He left a bequest in his will to repeat the gesture every Carnival Friday in perpetuity. The Bacanal del Gnoco still runs each February with the Papa del Gnoco handing out gnocchi in Piazza San Zeno.

1890: Antica Bottega del Vino opens

Antica Bottega del Vino opens on Vicolo Scudo di Francia in 1890 as a wine-only standing-counter osteria. It runs continuously to today (currently owned by Le Famiglie Storiche, the consortium of Amarone houses) and is the institution that established Verona's daytime ombra culture, the small standing glass of wine still consumed at 11:00 and 18:00 in bottle shops around the city.

14 October 1894: Melegatti patents pandoro

On 14 October 1894 the Veronese baker Domenico Melegatti deposited a patent at the Verona Chamber of Commerce for a pandoro, an enriched eggs-and-butter sweet bread baked in an eight-pointed star mould. It became Verona's Christmas cake, the rival to Milan's panettone, and made the city's name on grocery shelves worldwide.

1996: Vialone Nano IGP and the rice-belt designation

The European Union grants IGP protection to Vialone Nano Veronese rice in 1996, the round-grain rice grown on the Isola della Scala plain south of Verona since the 16th century. The designation cemented risotto all'Amarone, the Vialone Nano risotto deglazed with the local dried-grape superwine, as the city's reference rice plate.

2025 to 2026: the three-star era

Casa Perbellini 12 Apostoli on Vicolo Corticella San Marco took the city's first three Michelin stars at the Modena ceremony in November 2024, confirmed in the 2026 guide. Famiglia Rana in Vallese di Oppeano jumped to two stars in November 2025 under chef Francesco Sodano.

Immigrant influences

• Cimbri (Lessinia uplands, medieval): The Cimbri, a Germanic-speaking community settled in the Lessinia uplands north of Verona from the 13th century, brought chestnut flour, smoked lard, dark rye bread and the Monte Veronese cow milk that became the local DOP cheese.
• Ostrogoths (5th century): The Ostrogothic occupation under Theodoric (489 to 526 AD) left the wine-marinated braising tradition that became pastissada de caval, plus the long-cooking braised-meat technique still used in spezzatino and Veronese stews.
• Venetian Republic (1405 to 1797): Four centuries under the Republic of Venice brought the cicchetti culture of small standing-counter snacks, baccala mantecato (salt-cod whipped with olive oil), Adriatic seafood on the trattoria menu, and the ombra ritual that still defines Veronese aperitivo.
• Habsburg Austria (1814 to 1866): Fifty years of Austrian rule left strudel, sachertorte, the goulash that still appears on Lessinia upland menus, the pasta-and-bean krapfen tradition and the early-morning breakfast cafe culture that anchors Verona's espresso bars to this day.
• Southern Italian (post-1950 migration): Migration from Campania, Puglia and Sicily after WWII brought Neapolitan pizza (Pizzeria da Salvatore, opened 1961 by the Rasulo family from Napoli, is the city's oldest pizzeria), Sicilian cannoli at the historic pasticcerie and the Pugliese taralli that still stocks every aperitivo counter.
• North African and South Asian (1990s onward): Tunisian, Moroccan and Bangladeshi migration into Veronetta and Borgo Roma since the 1990s built the kebab strip on Via XX Settembre, the South Asian curry shops around Porta Nuova station and the late-night halal pizzerias that feed the after-1:00 crowd.

Signature innovations

• Pandoro: Domenico Melegatti's 1894 patent for the buttery star-shaped Christmas cake
• Risotto all'Amarone: the Vialone Nano-and-Amarone reduction that became the city's reference risotto
• Pastissada de caval: the 24-hour Valpolicella marinade for horse meat, tracing to 489 AD
• Pearà bread sauce: the peppery bone-marrow-and-bread accompaniment to Sunday bollito
• Bigoli through the bigolaro press: the bronze-die noodle pressed at table since the Scaligeri court
• Bacanal del Gnoco: 500-year-old Carnival gnocchi distribution at Piazza San Zeno
• Ombra culture: the 11:00 and 18:00 standing-counter wine glasses that anchor the Veronese day
• Baci di Giulietta: Pasticceria Flego's almond-and-hazelnut biscuits