The day got off to a less than auspicious start when we couldn’t find the bus stop. After about fifteen minutes of wandering around and asking various people, we discovered it pretty much where we’d expected to find it in the first place, the bus stop sign being hidden under a large poster advertising a local sex shop! We found it just in time to catch the bus to Verona which was luckily running late. We have found that anything that is running at all in Italy is usually running late. The bus was quite comfy with coach like seats. However, we were fortunate to get seats as the bus seemed to collect an impossible number of passengers as it travelled towards Verona. At every stop we thought it would not be able to cram any more standing passengers in but, somehow, it did. We were about fifteen minutes outside Verona when the young girl sitting in the seat in front of us started vomiting and there really wasn’t any space to accommodate this. Packed, as we were, like sardines in a tin her poor parents struggled to sort out the terrible state of affairs. Our hearts went out to them and we helped as best we could but it was so difficult in the cramped conditions and, of course, extremely unpleasant to say the least.
We were very pleased to get off the bus in Verona and liked the city on sight. It was a lovely sunny day but we hadn’t dressed for the quite dramatic drop in temperature. We really needed a fleece today and usually we travel prepared for this sort of change but we misjudged it somehow, so we had to walk as briskly as we could to keep warm.
Our first stop was the Arena di Verona, built in the first century AD and thought to be an important predecessor in planning the Colosseum (Coliseum) in Rome. Unlike the Colosseum, this arena is still used for summer opera performances and can seat up to 15,000.
Arena di Verona
Piazza Brà
There was a really good atmosphere in Verona and we particularly enjoyed browsing around the market stalls in the Piazza delle Erbe. When we looked up above the market stall umbrellas there were lovely old buildings with balconies and frescos.
Piazza delle Erbe
More views of Piazza delle Erbe Go easy on the chips Angela!
Street scene in Verona
We spent some time walking around the various streets, browsing the market stalls and shops and, of course, stopping now and then to drink coffee and people watch. Being tourists we had to visit Casa di Guilietta. Whilst Romeo and Juliet were supposedly entirely fictional characters there is a small 14th century palazzo with a ‘Juliet’ balcony that you can go and have your picture taken on or, as many do, star in your own re-enactment of the scene. The small archway at the entrance is covered in graffiti with tales of love, loss, messages to Juliet etc. etc. The graffiti must be many layers deep by now and some more recent messages have been written on plasters to provide a blank space. Now maybe we’re just nor romantic but the thought of someone taking the plaster off their blistered heel and sticking it the the wall to write a message on seemed pretty gruesome to us.
Casa di Giulietta (Juliet’s House) A rose by any other name?
We’d certainly recommend Verona as worth visiting. Unfortunately, our visit was a little shortened when Roland felt unwell in the afternoon so we headed back to camp. Once he was rested he soon felt much better. All’s well that ends well.
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