Torre dei Lamberti

Going up the Torre dei Lamberti: prices, stairs and the glass lift

You buy your Torre dei Lamberti ticket at the door, and there’s no need to book, though the tower recommends reserving, by phone on 045 927 3027 during opening hours or by email at torredeilamberti@agec.it. It isn’t run by Verona’s civic museums but by AGEC, a company owned by the city, so its days, hours and discounts follow their own rules.

Inside, the stairs climb round the tower’s inner walls, and a transparent lift goes up for anyone who’d rather not climb.

The Torre dei Lamberti opens every day, Mondays included

The tower says it’s open every day of the year except Christmas Day.

The Torre dei Lamberti on the VeronaCard: the stairs are included

With a VeronaCard the climb by the stairs is included, and the lift costs card holders €1 at the desk.

Because the tower opens on Mondays, when the Arena and the civic museums are shut, it’s a good one to keep for the Monday of a 48-hour card, along with the afternoon opening of Juliet’s House.

The view from the top of the Torre dei Lamberti

The terrace you reach is the tower’s first platform, open to the public since 1972, and it looks out in every direction over Verona’s roofs. Straight below is Piazza delle Erbe, laid out where the Roman forum stood, and over the rooftops you can pick out the oval of the Arena.

The bells of the Torre dei Lamberti: the Rengo and the Marangona

Four bells hang in the bell chamber, above the platform you climb to. The Rengo called the city council, the Arengo, and the militia, and the Marangona warned of fires and marked the hours of work. The two arrived in 1295 and gave the tower its other name, the Torre delle Campane, the tower of the bells; the hour bell and a fourth, the Rabbiosa, joined them at the end of the 18th century.

From 1172 to 84 metres: the history of the Torre dei Lamberti

The Lamberti, a powerful family later banished from Verona and long since died out, began the tower in 1172. It rose to 37 metres in bands of brick and tufa, in the Romanesque style, and you can still see those bands at the base.

In 1403 lightning struck the top. Work to repair and raise it only began in 1448, and sixteen years later the tower was finished with the octagonal bell stage in brick and white marble that takes it to 84 metres. The clock came in 1795, put up by Count Giovanni Sagramoso.

Getting to the Torre dei Lamberti on Piazza delle Erbe

The tower is on Piazza delle Erbe, and the entrance is at Via della Costa 2.