Verona

Our travels today find us in Verona, the beautiful setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. To get here, we travelled to Milan, Italy’s fashion capital, and then transferred trains for our two-hour trip to Verona. Fortunately, the day was brilliant with the sun shining brightly the whole way. Our trip took us just south of the Italian Alps, much of which are snow covered, even this close to summer (it was around 28 degrees in Verona today). Our accommodation (La Camaldola) is about a twenty-minute bus ride from the train station, in a semi-rural setting overlooking the city. There are grapes growing on the terraced hillsides, and it is impossibly romantic in both its setting and atmosphere. Our room is enormous, and furnished beautifully with period dressers and the like. You simply couldn’t ask for more.

Near where we are staying - next they'll have us stomping grapes with our feet for them.

We spent the afternoon walking mile after mile of the city, and each time we turned a corner something new blew us away. At one stage it was a stone arch built around 45 BC (yes, that’s BC, as in Before Christ). Then we came across the Arena di Verona, which is actually older than Rome’s famous coliseum (sic). It is famous for staging operas, although there are none scheduled while we are here.

The Arena di Verona, which pre-dates Rome's Colosseum.

 

This is the only part of the original outer wall remaining of the Arena.

This Roman arch pre-dates the birth of Christ - christ!

Arco Dei Gavi - it's amazing what you can build with a bit of hardiplank and some concrete blocks.

 

They were really into the old archways, those Romans.

For dinner we ate Italian (what a coincidence) at a restaurant overlooking the Piazza Bra (nope, I’m not joking, that’s what it’s called and, no, we didn’t order a couple of jugs to go with our meal). It was full of people and very Italian. I ordered lasagne and Alison ordered spaghetti with roasted vegetables. They were both nice but, surprisingly, no better than we’ve had back home in Lygon Street. In fact, the gelato in Europe is great, the parma ham lovely, the French pastries very nice and the pizza excellent, but we can honestly say that nothing we’ve eaten so far has put comparable dishes in Australia to shame. The best back home certainly compares favourably – well, that’s our humble view.

The Piazza Bra, where we ate dinner.

Apparently, these guys got sick of waiting for their pizzas, and decided to get serious. The service here is pretty ordinary.

 

These guys charge tourists to have a photo taken with them. I offered them half a dinari, but the told me to 'f' off - I don't speak the language, but somethings don't need translating.

We had thought of going to Venice tomorrow, but it seems that all of the trains are fully booked. Instead, we think we might visit Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy. It is one of three pre-alpine lakes in the area and we’ve been told the scenery is spectacular. If we do go, we’ll obviously take a boat trip as well. Providing the trains free up a little, we hope to get to Venice on Monday or Tuesday.

The Fiume Adige - which runs through Verona.