Getting from Verona airport to the old town, and what to do with your bags

Where the airport is

Verona's airport, also known as Valerio Catullo Airport, is not in the city at all. It sits at Villafranca di Verona, about 10 km southwest of the center. It began as a military airfield in 1916, opened to civilian flights in 1961, and handled more than four million passengers in 2025.

The site has two terminal buildings facing each other: one handles departures, the other arrivals. No railway line reaches the terminals. The practical link into Verona is a shuttle bus to the main railway station, Verona Porta Nuova, and from there it is a short city bus ride or a straight walk to the old town inside the bend of the Adige.

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The Airlink shuttle

The shuttle is ATV's line 199, sold as Verona Airlink. According to ATV, it runs every day, every 20 minutes, with a thinner service every 40 minutes at Christmas and on New Year's Day, and the ride takes about 15 minutes. The bus is equipped to carry passengers with disabilities, and in the city it stops in front of Porta Nuova station, next to the bus station on the forecourt.

Tickets come from the machine in the arrivals hall or on board. On line 199 a contactless bank card, phone or watch can simply be tapped on the validator: a green light confirms the fare, a red light means the tap failed, and no paper receipt is printed. The ticket is valid for 75 minutes after validation and can also be used on Verona's urban bus routes, which matters for the last stretch into town.

Travelers continuing by train have other options. ATV's partnership with Trenitalia means a single bus and train ticket can be bought through Trenitalia's sales channels, and a cumulative ticket agreed with the German and Austrian railways covers the shuttle for journeys north by rail. Check what a combined ticket includes before tapping a card on board and paying twice.

From Porta Nuova into the old town

Porta Nuova station lies south of the historic center, about one and a half kilometers from the Arena. That works out at roughly a twenty-minute walk or a ten-minute bus ride, so neither choice is wrong; it depends on the weight of the bags and the heat of the day.

On foot the route is hard to miss. Corso Porta Nuova, a straight avenue of about 800 meters, runs from Michele Sanmicheli's Renaissance gate of Porta Nuova to the Portoni della Bra, the pair of arches that opens onto Piazza Bra. The Austrians gave it marble sidewalks, and rows of oak trees were added after the First World War.

By bus, the Arena foundation lists urban lines 11, 12, 13, 51 and 52, plus the evening and holiday lines 90, 92, 94, 96, 97 and 98, as running from the station to a stop in Piazza Bra. An Airlink ticket can cover this hop if the bus is boarded within its validity. For other routes and the city's buses in general, see getting around Verona.

When a taxi is the better choice

Taxis run between the airport and the city around the clock, and the drive to the center or to Porta Nuova takes about 15 minutes, according to Air Dolomiti's guide to the airport. With several suitcases, small children, or a room far from the bus stops, that door-to-door quarter of an hour can be worth more than the shuttle and a second bus.

A taxi also sidesteps a problem that catches drivers out: the historic center is a limited-traffic zone watched by camera gates. Anyone planning to collect a rental car at the airport should first read how the traffic zone works for visitors arriving by car, because a hotel inside the zone has to pass on the plate before the car drives in.

What to do with your bags

Plan the luggage before landing. Air Dolomiti's airport guide states that the airport has no luggage storage service, and the Italian Wikipedia list of services at Porta Nuova station does not mention a left-luggage office either. Do not count on dropping bags at either end of the shuttle without checking first.

Luggage storage services do exist in the city, and some can be booked ahead for a set drop-off window. They are most useful when a flight lands hours before check-in, or on a departure day when the last visit and the flight are far apart. Look at where the drop-off point sits in relation to the station and to the route into town before choosing one.

Note Bags matter most on an opera night. The Arena's regulations forbid suitcases, trolleys, and bags or backpacks larger than 17 liters inside the amphitheater, there is no cloakroom, and the rules state that storage at the entrance is not guaranteed. What the evening involves is set out in what an evening of opera in the Arena is like.

Phones, tickets and the first hour

Much of the arrival runs on a phone. The shuttle fare can be tapped with a digital wallet, ATV sells bus tickets through its Ticket Bus Verona app, and timetables for the onward trip are published online. A travel eSIM set up before departure means data works from the moment the plane lands, and several eSIM options exist for Italy.

A sensible first hour looks like this: tap onto the Airlink at the airport, ride to Porta Nuova, then either walk up Corso Porta Nuova or take a city bus to Piazza Bra. Once the bags are dealt with, the Roman amphitheater is the first thing in view. For every other way into Verona, including trains from across Italy and from north of the Alps, see getting here.