Today in Verona

 Verona

Woke up this morning, enjoyed breakfast, packed up and moved into the ancient center of Verona.  Had a little trouble finding our hotel even though the address was only 100 meters off the main square.  The GPS said we were there but we couldn’t find it.  Finally asked a shop keeper and she pointed to the green door next door.  There it was, the Al Filarmonico written on a 4” by 7” brass plate at the bottom of the door.  We rode a rickety elevator built for two, dumped our stuff and joined a city “jump on, jump off” bus tour.

One of the first stops was Juliet’s balcony.  Didn’t see any Capulets or Montagues but it is possible they blended into the 100’s that were there to see Juliet’s statue.  People lined up to get their picture taken cupping Juliet’s bronzed breast.  It is supposed to bring good luck but we didn’t stand in line to test the theory.  We did learn that Shakespeare didn’t invent the love story.  Some guy named Luigi Deporto wrote the “true” story hundreds of years before and Shakespeare adapted the novel into a play, using all the original character names and geographic references.  The Capulets actually owned the house with the balcony back in the day.

We were treated to many sights of ancient Roman ruins and art but the most memorable item for us will be the Arena.  Built 2000 years ago as a purpose built 30,000-seat entertainment center.  They have cleaned up the wild animal scat and most of the Christian blood, and the gladiators finally ran out of bears, wolves and lions to kill.  The gladiators were eventually replaced with altos and tenors.  The Arena is now the largest outdoor opera house in the world.  It is amazing that a building over 2000 years old, remains essentially unchanged, and is still operating with the same intended purpose.  Not sure BC Place will still be operating in 3986.

There werent any real lives to give the thumb up or down to but couldn't resist.

The night’s highlight was dinner.  Deborah chose a restaurant based on the Trip Advisor’s highest ranking.  It was further out than others off the main square.  A small place in a narrow alley.  It looked very promising.  We enjoy trying to pick items from a foreign menu so we were initially disappointed when we found an English menu translation and then quickly happy again as we found out that the elegantly named main meat dishes were… horse.  You could order horse tartar, horse frays, horse meat sauce, or horse steak.  If horse wasn’t exactly what you hankered for, you could have donkey.  Needless to say, I ordered chicken and the Osteria del Duca will not get my number one recommendation. 

Feeling a bit bad not biking anywhere especially when we saw all the regular folk biking around the city.

Check Out Those Heels!

Headed to the train station tomorrow to travel to Venice.