The Star Roof Experience at the Arena di Verona is an unusually successful combination of setting, theatre and serious cooking. High above the Arena, with views across Verona and the extraordinary sense of history that comes from dining inside a two-thousand-year-old Roman amphitheatre, the dinner feels genuinely connected to the opera rather than simply added on as hospitality.

The menu was created by Emanuele Scarello of Agli Amici 1887, whose restaurant in Udine holds two Michelin stars, and was executed on site by two of his sous-chefs together with a Japanese chef from the Agli Amici team. The standard of cooking was impressively high for such an unconventional setting.

The four-course “Programma dell’Experience” moved through a concise interpretation of sea, land and season. Baccalà with tomato water and Mediterranean accents was clean and precise. Spaghetti tiepidi with aubergine and smoked sardines had more depth and savoury character, while the charcoal-grilled Garronese beef with bay leaf and cherries was the richest course. Dessert, a peach and sage soup with burnt vanilla cream and meringue, finished the meal with freshness rather than weight.

What made the evening particularly memorable was the balance. The cooking was refined enough to stand on its own, yet never competed with the location or the opera that followed. Service and presentation were polished, the atmosphere felt exclusive without becoming stiff, and the rooftop perspective over the Arena gave the whole experience a sense of occasion.

As a prelude to an evening at the Verona Opera Festival, it worked exceptionally well: high-class cooking in one of Europe’s most extraordinary cultural settings.