March 23rd 2013
Officially left Venice, and like pro’s Dana and I got on our train to Verona. Not going to lie trying to figure out how to get the right train was stressful including the massssiive 50lb bag and book bag we have. Yet we did it, got on the train which was super quick and arrived in Verona around 12 pm.
Our hotel is wonderful, we are staying at a very quaint little bed and breakfast, a step up from Venice, but I liked the last one as well. We have a sweet little balcony, free breakfast, a big tv (which we haven’t even turned on) and a million kagillion different doors to even get in to the place…oh and like 9 flights of stairs that we somehow managed to get up with our luggage, we found out there is a tiny elevator at the top…but it’s kinda scary…
Verona is beautiful, and so quaint. Not like I pictured in Letters to Juliet though, but I love the town. Much safer because of how small this little place is. Our B&B is literally a ten minute walk to all the main sites which is really nice to not have to hop on the bus, ect. So some history on Verona, although the actual origins are unclear Verona had an alliance with Rome, so there are ties of roman architecture all throughout the city. Verona became a roman colony in 89 bc, The former ford was replaced by two bridges, one of which, the Pothumius Bridge, also functioned as an aqueduct, as well as a dam for setting naval battles in the Theater. The city also had a forum, not far from the current Piazza delle erbe and, outside the walls, the famous arena. It particularly flourished under the rule of the Scaliger family in the 13th and 14th centuries and as part of the Republic of Venice from the 15th to 18th centuries. Verona has preserved a remarkable number of monuments from antiquity, the medieval and Renaissance periods, and represents an outstanding example of a military stronghold.
We decided to leave the main attractions until tomorrow, like visiting Juliet and the Arena, Verona is pretty little so we wouldn’t get stuck with, “well what do we do now”? Instead we got a really nice lunch at this wonderful place tucked around the corner in the main center called Caffe Monte Baldo, we enjoyed good wine, bread, and pasta all for under 12 euro. The caffe was filled with italians, and also a dog, did I mention the italians love their dogs. It’s so comforting to see dogs everywhere, and they literally are brought with them into the restaurants. After that we got some wonderful gelato, I got hazelnut with cone and happiness and then wandered around the main shopping streets on Via Mazzini and Corso Portoni Borsari. Verona has adorable shops, with very high fashion and nice quality clothes, window shopping was fun. Of course we had done really well in Venice with being practical and today we found some exquisite italian leather boots. We had to get them, love at first sight.
Walking around in our new italian leather boots, it was getting dark and some of the stores had given us a headache (literally sprayed every scent in a perfume shop) so we came back to our little bed and breakfast (after trying to open the 4th lock on the door for 15 minutes) got ready and went out for our nice dinner. Our dinner was pretty hilarious, we went to a place called Trattoria Papa E Cicia, which literally just opened with new management 3 days and it is a Sunday, so we were naturally the only ones in the restaurant. But this came to our advantage the waiter was so nice, we got a glass of bubbly and attempted to get some food. Dana and I ate some really good chicken..that was probably the fun parts like the livers ect with polenta, but whatever the part of the chicken, it was actually pretty good. We somehow ended up getting both of the portions of our main meal split (which is actually a really good idea) so I had some of Dana’s gnocchi with truffle and ricotta cheese and she had some of my pasta with white asparagus (didn’t know it could be white) and then we were given a shot some cherry flavored liquor, which I could not get down, (too much like cherry flavored medicine) and we were off for MORE GELATO. You can’t have more than one gelato.
Ciao Ciao
Amanda
penley travels 