Porta Borsari

A first-century Roman city gate standing in the middle of a shopping street, with no ticket, no railing and no opening time. It is the best preserved gate in Verona and most people walk through it without looking up. The shops press against it on both sides and the street still runs through where the carriageways were, which is the most direct demonstration in the city that the Roman plan never went away.

Visit if you:

• are fascinated by Roman and antique history embedded in a working street
• want monumental architecture you can touch without paying for it
• like reading a Roman town plan off a modern one
• are walking between Piazza Bra and Piazza delle Erbe anyway

Skip it if you:

• want interpretation on site — there is no ticket desk, no panels and no one to ask
• are expecting a monument set apart; shops press against both sides and traffic runs through it

This is a busy pedestrian shopping street and the gate sits directly in it. Photographers stopping in the arches block the flow -- step to the side.

Do not touch or lean on the stonework. It is unprotected two-thousand-year-old limestone in daily contact with a city, which is remarkable and also precarious.

The shops either side are ordinary Verona businesses rather than tourist operations; the street works better when people move through it.

Porta Borsari is free, open and unticketed -- it stands in a public street and there is nothing to enter or book.

It is at the western end of Corso Porta Borsari, a five-minute walk from Piazza delle Erbe, on the natural route between the centre and Castelvecchio.

This is a five to ten minute stop. Most visitors see it in passing; standing still and looking up is the whole difference.

The street is level and fully accessible.

It combines naturally with the Arco dei Gavi a few minutes west and Porta Leoni south of Piazza delle Erbe -- the three together make a short Roman walk.

Early morning is the only time the street is empty enough to photograph the gate without people and delivery vans.

Late afternoon light falls on the front and picks out the carving and the inscription.

Any season works -- there is nothing to close.

Evenings are pleasant, when the gate is lit and the street is on the passeggiata route.