Verona, Italy (9/09 to 9/11)

Now we are on a train from Verona to Venizia (Venice), and as I peek over to Alyssa for some potential words of wisdom on Verona, I notice that her jaw is relaxed and her eyes have come to a standstill, but what would traveling be if I couldn’t count on her, like clockwork, to drift away as soon as we are in motion. I guess I’m alone on this one. Nonetheless, my mind is flooded with fantastic memories of Verona.

On the left is the Arena, a Roman amphitheatre completed around 30AD! 

We arrived at the Verona Porta Nuova train station around 1:00 pm, and we immediately had to change our mindset away from German and into Italian mode, a language that neither of us is familiar. Luckily, some people spoke Spanish or at least can relate to it to Italian (this was very useful to me, but offended a few old school Italian Nationalists)—also, a few others spoke broken English. We spoke Spanish to a woman and she helped us find the right bus that would take us to Piazza Erbe, where our B&B was located; and sure enough, the Italian transportation system requires no magic in order to open their doors. We got off and were immediately awed by the history that was all around us.

The famous balcony of Juliet's house from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

A typical balcony in Verona. Almost every building in the city has a gorgeous balcony. Most are lined with flowers, but I really liked this picture that Alyssa took. 

After going up and down the street a few times, we found our home for the next few days with our host, Giessele. She spoke fluent Italian, excellent Spanish, and pretty good English, but when I told her that we speak a little Spanish, she almost exclusively spoke Spanish to us with a few Italian words when she couldn’t think of how to say something in Spanish. Somehow, we managed just fine.

After we threw our bags off our backs, we rushed out of the B&B and explored Verona in all of its beauty. Our first stop was at a gelaterria to get a scoop of their world famous authentic Italian gelato to which we chose chocolate hazelnut and mint chocolate chip, and shared each. Then we realized that we hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so we tried a slice of their world famous authentic pizza pizza—both are world famous for a reason.

Torre dei Lamberti in famous Piazza delle Erbe, a plaza that has been used as a marketplace and for its social atmosphere since the time of the Romans.

We dove into a great dinner of green salad, pasta primavera, and pizza smothered in an unlikely assortment of vegetables (which tasted a lot better than I am describing), and then we went back to our room around 10:00 pm, and passed out from exhaustion—this is becoming a common theme to our evenings. Yet we also keep the theme of continuous early morning rises. That day, we ate breakfast and lunch at a local Italian produce market in order to save a little money, but mainly because we needed to detoxify our poor little overburdened bodies, unbeknownst to the infusion of European junk-food that has been finding its way into our guts for the past few days. We also went without a knowledgeable tour guide so that we could further our savings. We survived just fine on our own, and saw some beautiful sights, but we both regret not being able to connect our sights with historical facts; I’m sure a little invested time in researching the history of Verona should get us caught up just fine.

A view of Verona from Torre dei Lamberti

A nice flower (someone please tell me what kind it is) in Giardini Guisti. This Italian Renaissance garden was planted in 1580. It is absoutely enormous and has row upon row of Cypress trees—we spent about three hours there.

A single Cypress between two rows of Cypresses

Alyssa made friends! These kids were playing in a fountain and when we walked near them, the oldest handed Alyssa a turtle from the fountain!!

Piazza delle Erbe on a still, crisp evening

That night, we asked around for some live music, which to them must mean super-model runway show because after following their directions, that’s exactly what we found. There it was, a giant Italian fashion show in the middle of Piazza Bra at 10 o’clock at night, equipped with countless promiscuous Italian models surrounded by a crowd of smirking perverted Italian men. I am still wondering if this is a typical Friday night for Verona.

Live music???

I couldn’t help but think about my grandma when we found 85% dark chocolate in a supermarket—I had never seen it that high before. So we just had to buy it, and we just had to try some immediately, and we just had to devour it. 

In just a few minutes we will be in Venice! This is the part of the trip that I am looking forward to most… And look who it is finally, Alyssa with smiling lips and bright eyes. She needs a hug, but I will report back to El Blog ASAP.