The sixteenth century saw the imposing process of safeguarding one of the most famous buildings of the Roman era: the Arena of Verona, which allowed the successful preservation of its ancient structure.
Its tiers saw the main events that also took place in other theaters: gladiatorial games with some prominent personalities of the time, hunting competitions such as the venatio, funeral games and also unfortunately, martyrdoms of Christians.
The real attention to the building, however, takes place in the Renaissance period where many artists begin the study of its architecture and search for logic and meaning, trying to reconstruct its history as well as to preserve its memory as intact as possible.
In 1600 the Arena was a very popular setting for knightly jousts, an idea that today makes one smile because of the contrast of eras. Among the illustrious spectators who in 1700 instead enjoyed the vision of comedies and plays inside the Roman theater, even Carlo Goldoni, followed by Goethe towards the end of 1700, who visited it during his Grand Tour and who remained extremely fascinated even if he was surprised that inside there was no ball game.
The Arena today hosts a grand and interesting opera season that make it an ideal setting for classical dramas, but not only. A night in the Arena is a unique emotion that everyone should experience, the silence before the start, the candles lit to illuminate the bleachers with stars and to wish good luck to the actors on stage.