Verona

After a quick train ride from Venice to Verona we arrived at our hotel near the railway station.  Much to our delight the hotel, Leon D’Oro, turned out to be lovely.  Such a treat after our last two pokey hotel rooms where the shower stalls were so small we could not bend down to wash our feet.  As much as we would have liked to stay in the room and luxuriate in the nice facilities, the desire to explore the city overruled. 

The fountains outside our hotel over the raging torrent of a Adige side canal

City wall

A simple supermarket on a nondescript back street in the most amazing old building

Verona seemed more of a ‘real’ city to us and less of a tourist Disneyland of the Italian cities we have visited to date.  Our first stop was the Arena, a 2000 Roman amphitheatre which is now used as a fantastic venue for opera.  Unlike the simple opera production we experienced in Firenze, the productions at the Arena are with all the trimmings and the outside of the amphitheatre was cluttered with pieces from the amazing sets.

Setting up for the opera in a 2000 year old amphitheatre

Some of the set pieces

Down the road from the Arena was Juliet’s Balcony.  Although Shakespeare set three plays in Verona (Romeo and Juliet, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Taming of the Shrew), Shakespeare never visited the city.  But the city fathers were not going to let the facts get in the way of a good commercial venture; they bought the 13^th Century house of the Dal Capello family (similar name to Capulet), added a balcony and made a prime tourist attraction.  Would be Juliets can stand on the balcony and look for their Romeo in the crowds below.  Visitors rub the right breast of a bronze statue of Juliet for luck and the walls to the courtyard entrance are covered with love notes.

Juliet's balcony

Rubbing Juliet's breast for luck

The next morning we went to the Radio Museum just up the road from our hotel. It is located in a technical college and we had the place to ourselves.  Bob was in heaven with all the valves, vacuum tubes, Bakelite and tales of Marconi.

Radio Museum

We made our way to the Castel Vecchio, a Medieval castle on the banks of the Adige River.  It had wonderful Gothic architecture with M-shaped merlons running along the castle walls and the bridge.  It was a charming setting with a nice museum.

Walls of the Castel Vecchio

Medieval lances

Ponte Vecchio across the Adige

Clock tower

Looking down the Adige

The next day, while visiting the Roman theatre, we came across another great bridge, Ponte Pietra, a Roman arched bridge completed in 100 AD.  During WWII the retreating Germans troops had blown it up, leaving only one arch intact.  It was rebuilt but the different coloured stone shows the destruction done during the war.

Rebuilt Ponte Pietra

View from the Roman theatre

I liked Verona but after four big Italian cities, as beautiful as they were, I tended to look off into the distant hills and wish we could have explored more of the Italian countryside. - Next time.