Verona, Italy

Fair Verona where we set our scene

We said goodbye to Lake Maggiore today. Unfortunately, the air conditioning stopped working overnight and Lucy and I were woken by an over-heated Hugo trying to open the bathroom door at 3.10am. We then slept with the doors open, which only amplified the truck noise at the cost of a little less heat. At 6.30am we got up and ready. Breakfast was in the nice restaurant again. We trundled up past the Regina Palace. I snuck into the foyer to see the gigantic circular chandelier and white and gold armchairs. It was amazing. I also liked the topiaries that spelt Regina. Hugo and I joked about the correct pronunciation.

A thick mist hung over the villages on the opposite side of the lake, illuminating blue peaks and contrasts. We mad the 8.39am train. Back in Milan, we attempted to get the next train to Venice at 11.35am. Unfortunately, all the earlier trains were cancelled, so I held off from using the bathroom due to the queue and scary metro-style barricades. The 11.35 was out-of-control packed. After we got our bags in a carriage we realised it was full. The next (a regional which required no seat booking fees) was at 12.25.

We had no lunch and literally stood on the platform observing a man who had shat himself and was now searching bins for food. The only five seats smelt of urine and some we did eventually use had a small suspicious puddle under them. (We chose to believe it was a dog). Finally, our platform was announced. As the train moved across the land it got increasingly hotter. It stopped at every stop and at one a large number of people squeezed on. We stopped for roadworks. When the train went through tunnels there was no lighting so it was pitch black. We arrived in Verona. The busy, dirty train station wasn't anything compared to Milan. We hiked (bags trundling behind) over broken, gritty, and sometimes non-existent, footpaths. The walk felt long but we knew a pool was at the end. We found the hotel, Dad had the right street and even openly consulted us for confirmation of directions, but Lucy spotted it just as a young kid asked us if we were lost. I had the feeling he wanted to practise English with us.

San Marco Hotel, Verona

The hotel looks like a cheap US route 66 motel combined with an office block, with a pool added as an afterthought. The pool was refreshingly freezing and we had G&Ts. A deckchair collapsed under Mum and trapped her hand. Verona looks like an ugly area of Auckland, but we are out of town and hopefully, it will improve. Dinner at the hotel is at 7pm but tomorrow it's at 6pm for the Opera (apparently it's a big deal).


San Marco Hotel

Today was our sightseeing day in Verona. We began later for the first time yet - waking up at 8am. Breakfast was served in this garish yellow and red room. with paintings of sunflowers on the walls. We filed teapots with machine coffee then used a separate pot for milk. We walked into town around 9.30am, not expecting much. Once we were over the canal that ran parallel to the road we previously walked up, Verona became a leafy, green, quaint city. We passed the Roman Cemetary, a huge building on a roundabout, then immediately hit the European architecture. The buildings were painted hues of red, ochre and yellow, and most had green vines handing from their wire balconies and blue or green shutters. It was already boiling and the streets seemed a little busy. We passed in to Old Town where things became more picturesque.

We walked past a castle at the entrance of Old Town. inside it seemed well preserved and there was a beautiful view up the river from a bridge in the grounds. Dad was on a mission so we didn't stop long.

A massive open space held the colosseum of Verona. and the building surrounding it were cluttered with tourist cafes. We went in and sat (and sweated onto) stone seats as the crew set up for the Opera. But due to this, there was cranes and metal seating covering half the place.

After the Colosseum, we went up the equivalent of Verona's High Street with all the shops. We had a quick look around Zara, Lucy's top she wanted had gone. Even this street was beautiful. It opened up to the Square containing the Herb Market. We turned right to Juliet's balcony, perhaps the most internationally famous destination in Verona. Although Romeo and Juliet was a folk tale before Shakespear wrote it, it seems he (or the tale) based it off actual families with traceable properties.

Juliet's balcony was in a small courtyard with an arch at the opening (covered in graffitied love notes ala the John Lennon wall in Prague). The actual balcony appeared t be a stone sarcophagus attached to the wall, not like the wire ones everywhere else. The yard was packed with tourists. There was also a wire fence with love-locks all over it and a vine hanging down that Romeo supposedly climbed. Also, gum appeared to be stuck all over certain walls as a less attractive form of graffiti.

We went back to the Herb Market and admired the square. Some building had frescos from the renaissance breaking off, there were statues and fountains. We found amazing fresh vege sandwiches for E3.50 among all the tourist souvenirs junk and fruit cups containing strawberries, real coconut, melon, grapes and banana. We ate lunch sitting in shade next to the taxi stand, on the ground.

Continuing across the square, past an ancient water fountain we went through some intriguing brick patterned arches to the Gentleman's Square, where a statue of Dante stood. The buildings formed courthouses and there were some medieval shackles about. Each entrance had a male statue above it. We continued to an ornate church. A beggar lady sat outside, I looked in her eyes. The church was quiet and cool, a welcome sensation. Here we accidentally went around the corner and ended up outside Romeo's house. An Asian couple taped a post-it note to the building while we watched.

Dante

From here it was home. It was 1.15pm, the sun was reaching its zenith and all respectable shops were closing for siesta. We got some gelato from a dubious shop run by an Italian-Asian family with coca-cola signs covering it, but it turned out to be delicious. I had coffee flavoured gelato - yum.

Back at the hotel, we waited for 3pm to roll around the minute it did, we were in the pool. Eventually, the evening sun was too hot so we shared our chairs with the growing number of Germans outside waiting for the Opera. We moved to have drinks in our togs in the shade.

We just had dinner across the road at a wine bistro. A round-faced man who was bald with a beard served us, we were about an hour ahead of all the other guests at 7pm. The room was sectioned off from the bar, where all the Italians stared at us. It was filled and lined with various wine bottles. The food was amazing - especially compared to the night before. It was what I expected every night from Italy, fresh pasta with basil and cherry tomatoes, caesar salads with delicious chicken breasts and crotons drenched in olive oil. The man was hilarious and wouldn't let us order anything he didn't like - and he kept speaking French. He chose the wines and the desserts - banoffee with strawberry instead of banana. He also offered us liquorice alcohol at the end as a digestive, as we had spent so much money. He was funny and put everyone in a good mood.