After battling the demon hoards of tourists in Venice we decided on a change of pace. So we took a day trip over to the city of Verona. It's only a 1.5 hour train ride from here so it wasn't a big deal at all.
The city is almost the total opposite of Venice. Venice is actually quite large but the pedestrian avenues and canals are super claustrophobic. Verona is smaller but the avenues are wide and long and wonderfully devoid of tourists.
Our guide book has a few things about Verona so we just zeroed in in those and did a semi-guided walk outlined in the book. Ancient (1st century AD) arena, elusive column, ancient city gate, gelato, towers ... We saw it all. Even got to see Juliet's house! Well I'm not so sure if any Juliet ever lived in this house but the courtyard and balcony certainly fit the bill from the story. This was the only place we encountered hoards of people. People were jammed in there trying to get pictures and put expensive lockers on some iron grates and write graffiti on the walls. There's a statue of Juliet in the courtyard where people rub her breasts for good luck as we are already in love and blessed with good luck we did not partake in this activity but witnessed a host of older men rubbing and kissing her bronze boob. Pervs :)
We could have paid the astronomical €6 fee to go in the 'museum' and then up to the balcony but figured that was 2 servings of gelato which is a much better deal.
Oh, almost forgot. We did pay the €6 fee to get into the ancient roman arena but it wasn't even close to worth it. Cool to see the inside but there wasn't anything to really look at especially since its set up as a concert venue (complete with stage, lighting and loads of seating). We did get to use the bathroom which is always a win.
Later in the day we walked around a city sponsored mothers day festival eating gelato and ended up watching a small concert. The fact that we had sweat stache all day with it being 84 made us realize how much we love San Diego All in all a grand day!
Back in Venice we walked around our hotel looking for something to eat. Found the only eatery open, had wine, pizza and dessert then enjoyed the night in our ritzy hotel!
Tomorrow we head to Bologna and hopefully some fabulous food! My goal there is not to eat any pizza. Bologna is known for its great food so I want to make sure I taste it all!!!!
Pics:
1) Roman arena
2) Me by the river.
3) Carolyn trying to decide what to drink.
4) Us at a fountain in Piazza Erbe.
5) Piazza Erbe.
6) Another instance of Carolyn trying to decide what to drink :)
7) Juliet's balcony.
8) Alps fountain in Piazza Bra.
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