Verona is world-famous for love, Shakespeare, and its Roman ruins.
But few know that, among immortal verses and ancient stones, it is also the birthplace of one of the greatest literary adventures of all time.
This narrative walk takes participants on a journey to discover Emilio Salgari, often called “the Italian Verne”, author of Sandokan, the Black Corsair and the Pearl of Labuan: a writer capable of weaving together jungles, distant oceans and revolutionary uprisings without ever really leaving Italy. A storyteller who transformed his city into a map of the imagination.
Walking through the historic old town of Verona, among squares, libraries, churches, statues, and old printing houses, we will discover how everyday places became adventure settings and how characters who still live on in books, films, and TV series today were born here.
The route begins near the Castel San Pietro funicular, close to Ponte Pietra, and continues along the Adige to Ponte Garibaldi. Here, Verona reveals itself as a city of borders, observation, and passageways: the ideal setting for recounting an era of scholars, chroniclers, and “detectives” of reality, and the rigorous method with which Salgari constructed his imaginary worlds.
Passing through the area of the first printing house of Verona's historic newspaper, we retrace the writer's journalistic beginnings and the birth of his serialized novels, which captivated readers of all ages. The stop at the church of St. Euphemia, where Salgari was baptized, brings the storey back to its most intimate origins.
In front of the birthplace on Corso Porta Borsari, which cannot be visited today, one of Salgari's great paradoxes emerges: adventure often arises from enclosed spaces, from the desk, from books. Continuing among statues and squares dedicated to poets, patriots, and key figures of the Risorgimento, we discover how many of Salgari's characters conceal Italian faces and ideals, transformed into pirates, corsairs, and exotic heroes.
The heart of the experience is the Civic Library, Salgari's true “harbour”: the place where he consulted atlases, maps, and travel accounts, combining imagination, study, method, and tireless curiosity.
The walk ends in a historic travel bookshop: the perfect place to reflect on the meaning of travel as a desire for discovery and to understand how, for Salgari, adventure could set sail even while staying put.
It is not a traditional guided visit.
It's a storywalking experience, where the city becomes a storey and walking becomes a way to read Verona with new eyes
