On our way to Venezia from Parma, we stopped at Verona. It was well worth it and I encourage anyone passing near here to make a stop and walk through the Verona old town. I think at various points in their history, Verona and Venice were competitors or peers in terms of their influence throughout this region.
We parked our car to the left of the base of the hill in the photo below. In Italy, as in other European countries, bus, Metro, and parking tickets, if not available through on-street vending machines, are obtained at one of the corner stores, coffee bar-tobacco stores (in Italy their signs say bar-tabacchia) that are common in downtown areas.
The photo includes, although its hard to see, a Roman theatre near the bottom and the Castello San Pietro on the top of the hill with the characteristic cypress trees that are found all over Italy.
The picture above was taken from this bridge which I think is from Ponte Pietra. The water level was high here also as it was in the south of France.
This photo opportunity was too good to pass up. We speculated this was a cooking school or maybe a major hotel or convention centre where the chefs appeared to be on a common break.
The tower behind us – the Torre dei Lamberti – was built in the 13th century and offers some viewing platforms that we didn’t climb.
According to local lore, this is a statue of Juliet (of Romeo and Juliet fame) and the scene of one of Shakespeare’s play. The tourist custom is to have your picture taken with your hand on Juliet’s breast. This accounts for how much shinier (see second picture below) her right breast is than her left breast – its easier to reach.
The passage way into the courtyard is lined with graffiti and these post-it notes professing one visitor’s undying love for another.
More ruins that Verona and Italy had decided to preserve. Scenes like this brought to mind the cost of restoring and maintaining these displays and made me aware of how young Canada is (relatively) and don’t have to make decisions about which antiquities to save and how to pay for them.
Verona also had its own Roman arena but we chose not to visit this one because we’d seen samples already in other cities (Arles) and Rome’s version was still to come.
We did, however, enjoy some of the characters that advertised a visit.
This is a picture of a fountain of Nutella. This caught Allister and Charlotte’s eyes – they are our Nutella aficionados. Laura-Lyn and I merely enjoyed the displays.
