The Last Few Days in Verona

Day 15, 16, and 17 of 59

Saturday July 14, 2018 - Monday July 16, 2018

Okay, I admit, I'm behind again. I think the problem is that I just get so relaxed, that I move slower, see things slower, and then just don't get around to writing it down. I will try to stay more on top of it. I think the further away I get from the frenzy of working, the slower I am going... on the plus side I'm very relaxed and the black circles under my eyes are gone!

So the rest of Verona passed in slow hazy days walking, eating, shopping and drinking just a little Valpolicella. We had planned on doing a Valpolicella wine tour... but that didn't happen. Next time I guess 😉

Rule #1 of travelling: if you love a place always leave a reason to come back.

In Verona's case there are many reasons to come back. It is a GORGEOUS small city, I love the sound of people speaking Italian, the food is good, the shopping is good, now that I've seen an opera in the arena I want to see them ALL, and of course I need to take a wine tour to the Valpolicella region!

I'll just show you a few photos of some of the other things we saw in Verona to finish up the post.

There is a river that sort of circles (or half circles anyway) around the historical centre of Verona. This makes for lovely scenic walks looking across the river at bridges, buildings and other pretty scenery.

This next bridge was my very favourite. Ponte Scaligero. It is sort of old... sort of because it was old, got destroyed and then got rebuilt. It was originally built somewhere around 1354 as an escape route from the castle in case of rebellion. Way to be sneaky... nobody will notice this bridge for sure <insert sarcasm here>! You can see the beautiful brick bridge leading away from the Castelvecchio.

The Castelvecchio is now a museum and a place where you can hold events. We happened to catch a glimpse of the wedding going on when we walked back to the bridge. First of course we needed a photo in front of the castle doors. Italy has the most amazing doors!

Here's the Steve sized door, complete with large drawbridge:

and here is the Lisa sized door, with appropriately smaller drawbridge 😀

At the time it was built it was thought to be the longest spanning arch bridge. The architect was apparently nervous, because legend says he attended the inauguration of the bridge on a horse... in case a quick getaway was necessary!

The bridge has been partially destroyed a few times. Verona (as most European places we've visited) has had its fair share of invaders and destroyers. The worst was at the end of WWII when the bridge was completely destroyed. Do you know what those amazing Italians did? They lovingly rebuilt that bridge with the original stones unearthed from the riverbed. When they didn't have enough they found out which quarry the original stones came from and got the rest from there. That is attention to heritage monuments! It is hard to get a good picture of the whole bridge but here are a few from on the bridge.

This is where you enter from the Castelvecchio side to get to the bridge.

This is from about half way down the bridge.

I'm having trouble finding photos that really show how beautiful, intricate and interesting the bridge is... so I'm going to include this video (which has a small zoom in on the wedding happening in the Castelvecchio).

Beside the Castelvecchio is this huge Roman looking arch.

My original reason for wanting a photo of this was for my beautiful niece Jessie. When we were in Italy together she was rather obsessed with touching "old things". I wanted a photo of me "touching something old". (Ha ha! I'm not referring to Steve!)

Here I am touching something I thought was old.

Turns out the Arco dei Gavi is also only "sort of" old. It was commissioned during the first century and stood at the entrance to Verona, the ancient Roman City. Then when Napoleon ruled in Italy it was destroyed (probably didn't want anyone else to have a big arch!). It was also rebuilt using as many of the original pieces as possible in 1932 and moved to this location.

Now I'm just getting to random things I don't want to forget so I'm writing them down!

We also spent a little time in my favourite piazza (Piazza del Erbe).

This is where we shopped (I may have a new Italian purse and scarf!) we ate, and I drank one of my favourite European drinks!

We wandered around A LOT, and I admired beautiful buildings and doors!

We tried and tried to get a good photo of this building but it just wasn't working, so Steve did a short video instead 😉

We also made MANY trips for gelato. In this case it was the night after our visit to the opera, and I was hoping that if we sat outside we could listen to the next one. No such luck... you could only hear pieces... but the gelato made up for it!

We also love to visit cemeteries. Italian cemeteries are the best! But when we arrived this one was closed for the day, and we didn't make it back... next time, I guess!

We saw so many Fiats here (no chance of missing our little car... we felt like we saw it everywhere!). This little Fiat was super cute though! I'd take this one in a heartbeat!

And finally a mention of the restaurant around the corner from our apartment. It was BEAUTIFUL!

The food was tasty, and no more expensive than any of the other restaurants we tried in Verona. I would definitely recommend it for the ambience alone!