Eldor Shomurodov struck early for the only goal of the game.
Afterwards, Ranieri said: “It was a very difficult match, which we fully expected. Verona are very physical, they press and counter-press, have two very fast strikers who are good at taking men on.
“We needed to be efficient and we were straight away. It was a marvellous Cristante cross-field pass, Soulé did well, so did Shomurodov.
"The lads all suffered under pressure the way I liked it, we wanted the three points, we got them, so we can have a nice Easter along with our fans.”
Top four dream intact
Roma are only two points outside the top four and Ranieri added, “It’s not easy. It’s one thing to say these lads are doing something extraordinary and we will give it a go.
"There are dreams, which are fine, there are thoughts, and then there is action. Now we’ve got work to do, as there are some marvellous games coming up, it’s not going to be a walk in the park.
“We want our fans to be happy with our campaign. We’ll give it our all. It started badly, we want it to end well.”