Wandering Aimlessly in Verona

 Day 13 of 59

Thursday July 12, 2018

The theme for now appears to be that jet lag is really messing with us. This is making it very difficult to get going at a reasonable time (which is hard for Steve on the best of days!)

Anyway, this has resulted in some very enjoyable wandering aimlessly in Verona.

Our apartment is perfect. Just inside the walls of the historical centre on a quiet street. It has a kitchen, balcony, good wifi, air conditioning and a washing machine. These are the things I look for in European apartments! It is on the 5th floor (European 5th, which means 6th floor back home) but amazingly it has an elevator! This does not happen very often in the old buildings so we are thrilled! It is a pretty cool tiny elevator (3 people max) that you can see the metal grates on the outside of as you go up (or down I suppose).

This post is mostly going to be shots of buildings and streets because this small city is just so beautiful! Trust me this is a VERY small selection of the photos we took!

The main square in town (Piazza Bra... which I think means large square) houses the arena, a park and lots of restaurants. I had read that the restaurants are expensive... but maybe just expensive for Verona. It definitely seems cheaper than Rome, Venice or Florence to me.

This is the fountain in the park, with the arena in the background.

 

There are plenty of restaurants to choose from!

We tested out some Veronese pizza. We made the classic mistake of ordering a pizza each 😃 Steve always thinks he's hungrier than he really is! Mine had the most amazing mushrooms (funghi) on them! Paired with a glass of Valpolicella and a view over the square made this an excellent meal!

After dinner we wandered for quite some time...

Verona is surrounded by walls and fortifications. Here is one beautiful section of the wall by the main square.

The roads leading out of the historical centre (for instance on the way to our grocery store) have beautiful gates to walk (or drive) through.

Now a few shots of the buildings.

 

This is the designer shopping street Via Mazzini.

We also came across an even more beautiful square called Piazza delle Erbe. This is the oldest square in Verona and definitely my favourite.

The buildings are gorgeous, and there is the added benefit of many frescoes to enjoy looking at.

Next we came across casa de giulietta (which was closed). This is probably the best time to take a photo because there weren't hordes of people molesting Juliet's statue. Apparently you will be lucky in love if you caress the statue's breast. Based on the worn pattern on poor Juliet, you can imagine many people have tried.

We'll come back here tomorrow to take a closer look. You can't tell because Steve reached inside to take the photo, but there is a big iron gate keeping you out at night.

Next we came across another piazza (so many beautiful ones in such a small area!). Even with some detective work with Mr. Google I haven't figured out what this square is called... but it was sure pretty! Each of the gates coming into the square had large statues standing on top.

The final place we walked by tonight was the arena. There was an opera going on inside, which you could hear if you could find a quiet spot outside. Around the arena they have banners showing the different operas through the years that have been performed at the Verona opera festival. The Verona Opera Festival was founded in 1913, and with the exception of some of the Great War years, they have had an opera festival each summer.

We were tickled to see the poster from this opera from 1929 named.... Marta!

It was also interesting to walk around because they store the sets for the different operas outside the area.

And finally we'll finish up with a little video from the outside of the arena, from when an opera is being performed inside. I'm a little nervous to go tomorrow because listening to it outside makes me a little teary eyed. Imagine when I'm inside... hopefully I won't spend the whole time sobbing 😭