Verona's beautiful open-air salon is ringed by a series of elegant Renaissance palazzi. Chief among these are the Palazzo degli Scaligeri (aka Palazzo Podestà ), the 14th-century residence of Cangrande I Della Scala; the arched Loggia del Consiglio, built in the 15th century as the city council chambers; and the brick and tufa stone Palazzo della Ragione. In the middle of the piazza is a famous statue of Dante, who was given refuge in Verona after he was exiled from Florence in 1302.
Most of the piazza's buildings are off limits to the public, but you can visit the 12th-century Palazzo della Ragione, on your left as you enter from the Arco della Costa, which has housed a modern art gallery since April 2014. Next door, the Palazzo del Capitano is fronted by a cobbled square with two huge round windows in the ground, which reveal the excavated Roman and medieval basements beneath. To the northeast loom the Arche Scaligere, the ornate, Gothic funerary monuments of the Della Scala family.