Verona

Mid May 2014

Verona is a beautiful city in Veneto and is very much like a mini Rome. It has amazing architecture such as the Verona Arena, Castellvecchio, Ponte Pietro, Torre di Lombardi and amazing churches. It's historical centre is bustling with tourists and has plenty to offer. The raging river Adige flows quickly in a pale green mass and the romance is in the air with the story of Romeo and Juliet being based on the city. Visiting for a few days at a time is wonderful but it's difficult to gain a sense of Veronese life in the historical centre on a prolonged stay as everything seems to be geared towards tourists. It's only away from the centre and outside of the ancient walls that 'normal' Verona sprawls. 

Ruby and I had an apartment on the second level of a quiet street away from the historical centre. On the corner was an old flour mill tower that had been converted into a cool bar and foccaceria. This became our favourite place for takeaway dinners. The freshly baked focaccia cooked in wood fired ovens had an amazing array of toppings from vegan vegetables and tofu to eggplant and capsicums to prosciutto and mushrooms. These were cut up into bite size pieces during aperitivo time when the bar would be packed with Spritz drinking locals. Their wood fired crusty loaves of organic stone ground breads were a rare find as most other breads I found were standard white flour varieties. There was a little restaurant that  took up the end of our deadened street called Maria Callas. Ruby and I had a romantic dinner for 2 here in their garden and it was a wonderful experience of fresh fish and seafood. Across the road from our apartment was a dance school that made Ruby miss home a bit when groups of girls would rehearse in the middle of the road. I enjoyed walking along the ancient city walls and up into surrounding hills. I also loved walking along the river paths at sunrise with the streets completely vacant.

Unfortunately the managers of our apartment were a bit of a concern with the way they handled our whole arrangement and we had a very uncomfortable feeling from them. Ruby and I were longing for friendship at this point so we cut our stay short and headed to Bergamo to be close to our friends Elena and Giorgio. Since Paul was away on the Giro d'Italia tour, he encouraged us to move on.

We did return to Verona for one night to attend an Italian performance of Romeo and Juliette in the Arena. It was an opportunity too good to miss. The show started at 9:30 and ended after midnight. Ruby didn't quite make it to the end but the feeling of sitting in an Arena over a thousand years old was amazing.