A Day in Verona: Girls Trip to Italy

We got up early to catch a train by 9:00.  This sure hasn't turned out to be a relaxing trip, there is just too much to see and too little time.  We made it to the train station, luckily, because  we knew the way now because our wandering in Venice the day before. It was a short ride of about an hour to Verona. When we got to Verona we were a little disappointed to find it wet, cold and foggy.  There was a light sprinkle and the wind was making it so freezing cold.  Luckily our Airbnb let us drop off our bags so we could go exploring.  We walked down Via Pallone to the visitor center to get a map and idea of hours for the tourist spots.  We passed by an ancient wall, which was part of the Porta Nuova.  The wall had statues and exhibits on it.

We found out from the tourist office that nothing opened today until after 1:00.  We had about an hour, so we decided to check out the outside of the Verona Arena first, then walk through the shopping district.

The Arena reminded me of the Colosseum in Rome and since I have already been in two Colosseums/Arenas, and neither Heather or Rebecca cared about going in or paying the entrance fee we were all perfectly happy just seeing it from afar and taking pictures from the outside.  We did learn that the Roman Amphitheater is still used today for summer programs and operas. That would be super cool and worth the money, in my opinion, to watch an opera in the Arena. 

The shopping streets started right next to the Colosseum, so we walked the shops.  The first shops we went by were super expensive and high end stores.  We were more looking for the cheap and dumb touristy shopping, so we kept going.  We did pass by a gelato store, and it's never too early in Italy for Gelato, right?!? The shops turned from high end modern clothes to antique and novelty stores.  We stumbled upon an old stamp and stationary store.  Now this was a cool store!  The shop even had an old Heidelberg original printing press in the back that we got to peek at.

Rebecca is a publisher and writer, so she was so excited to see the printing press and the store.  We spent a good half hour to hour in the store just looking around.  In the end, Rebecca ended up buying a stamp. We also found out that the shopkeeping can custom make stamps and letter seals.  

After leaving the stationary store, we made our way to the Ponte Pietra, which is the bride in the north part of the city. The little Italian houses before the bridge were super cute.  I love the bright and cheery colors they paint the buildings and how all the building looked so old.

From the bridge we could see both sides of the bank.  We could also see just how yucky the weather was too.  The fog was so thick and there wasn't much of the beautiful city that we could make out from the thick grey.  

After crossing the bridge we paid the small fee to ride the funicular up to the Castle San Pietro.  The best views of the city are supposed to be from the lookout at the top. The fog kinda messed that up, as all I got was a grey sad looking city.  Oh well, you win some and loose some.  

We walked all around the castle, but sadly it is currently under renovations, so you can't go in.  It also looks as if it is someones residence and the ruins were being turned into something modern.  It was a shame and a bit of a let down.  Not only did we not get a great view, but there wasn't a cool castle to see.

We left the castle and took the funicular down and decided to check out the Basilica di Santa Anastasia.  The lady that helped us at the tourist center highly recommended making a stop at this cathedral.  We bought our entrance fee and an audio guide and went around the church.  The church was cold and honestly like every other gothic cathedral I have been in.  The Saints and statues were all Saints that I didn't recognize or understand the history of, so after a few minutes, we all looked at each other and decided this was a beautifully cold gothic church and we had seen and heard enough.

As we left the church, I was even colder then when we went inside, due to how very cold it was inside.  We walked back to one of the main squares with stalls of tourist souvenirs.  We decided to check out the shops, and Heather and I were so cold we both bought hats to keep our heads warm.

Our next stop was one that I was really looking forward to, Juliet's house.  This is the house that has the balcony that inspired Shakesphere for the Romeo and Juliet Balcony scene.  I watched "Letters to Juliet" before coming and that made me even more excited to see this beautiful and romantic place.  As we came into the small yard we were first greeted with huge signs covering the arch of the entrance stating things like, "Do not write on the Wall" in a bunch of languages.  And then we walked into the full glory of the dumpster this square has become.  All the walls surrounding the small yard were covered in trash and gum and graffiti.  It was disgusting.  It wasn't even cool modern art looking, it was just gross and disappointing.

There was a statue of Juliet below the balcony and lines of people were there to take pictures with her and I had to take a double take because they were all grabbing her boob in the picture.  Ever. Single. Person.  Girl, boy, kid, grandparent, all of them were filling up Juliet.  What the heck?  I wondered.  In an open protest we took a picture and Rebecca placed her scarf around Juliet for our picture.  Come to find out there is some story out there that says you will have good luck if you touch Juliet's right breast.  I say hogwash. There is also a saying that if your friend jumps off a cliff, that doesn't mean you should too.

We left Juliet's house disappointed and feeling violated on behalf of Juliet and made our way to the Castelvecchio Castello Scaligero. Castelvecchio means "Old Castle" in Italian, and this old castle ruled the city in the Middle Ages.

We were able to walk all around the grounds of the old castle.  There was an old bridge that crossed the river and we took a walk across.  The sky was finally beginning to clear up and the sun was coming out and melting the fog away, so from the bridge we finally got a better view of the south side of the city.  There was a place on the bridge were you could climb a small stairway to a lookout point, and we enjoyed some warm sun rays and the city view for a bit.

By this point in the day we were all starving, so we went on the hunt for food.  It literally became a hunt because every restaurant we went to was closed.  I guess Italians don't eat dinner until extremely late, so restaurants don't open until 8 pm around here.  We found two restaurants that were open, but they didn't have a gluten free option, and Rebecca needs GF, so we kept searching.  We finally found a place that had GF on the menu, so exhausted and hungry we sat down for dinner. The appetizer was so fun, it was an Italian appetizer with bread, cheese, nuts and honey.  

Before coming to Verona, I was expecting today to be my favorite day.  From all my research, everyone talks about how beautiful and enchanting the city is.  I don't know if it was due to the fog and chilly weather, or everything opening so late because it was Monday, or the massive disappointment in Juliet's house, but the sites weren't great today.  Luckily the company was fantastic, so that made the day fun.  However, Verona isn't on my list of places I would want to return to, it just wasn't all it is hyped up to be.