An Unexpected Journey

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(For all you devote Tolkien fans out there, I am sorry to say this title was not a refernce to my astonishing discovery of Middle Earth.. simply a blog written about beautiful Verona, Italy ha ha)

Looking back perhaps Alexandra & I should have known that to go to the City of Love, solo with just your other single gal pal, means that Verona will offer a totally different prespective than most would find.. we just didn't realize it was going to be SUCH an adventure! Even the planning itself was a little hap-hazard. We decided on Thursday I believe that we would go, because we both had an interest in seeing "Casa di Giulietta" (House of Juliet) which had a discounted entrance fee this particular weekend. Seeing as how there was nothing else planned in Venice, and we both live a two minute walk from the train station, it seemed like a plausible idea to take off unexpectedly for the weekend. Friday night hit and we got invited out to dinner with some friends. To a Mexican Restaurant, none the less, whose decor looked like more like something you'd find in an old Indian saloon on a side road of Highway 1 travelling across Canada (personally I loved it!). As usually happens, the wine and full bellies gave us a sense of laziness, and we began to talk about maybe just post-poning our trip for another weekend. So that night we went to bed thinking we'd make it some other time..

10 AM Saturday morning rolls around and I awake suddenly to find my house is empty & quiet. I laid in bed for about 5 whole minutes till I decided to pick up the phone and call Alexandra..
"Alex! Are you up yet? I had a crazy idea.. lets go to Verona today after all?! I am going to start looking for hotels right now and I found a train that leaves at 12:30 PM.. lets do it!"
Poor Alex, I had literally called and woken her up and then proceeded to announce I wanted to take off for another city in just over two hours haha. Well the trooper she is, and apparently my soul mate in spontaneity.. she gave me the thumbs up. Four hours later we arrived in Verona by train, the sun was shining bright and it was even sort of warm there?! We had made the right decision obviously. I was in to enjoy two days anywhere that wasn't rainy, foggy, or cold.

Well besides that, Verona itself is absolutely breathtaking. It is the first true "Italian" city I have had the chance to visit so far, and let me say that it is a whole world away from Venice. A 'fortress' city, built up of castles, surrounded by gorgeous rivers. There was no doubt to me as soon as I saw it why Shakespeare chose such a place for the most romantic tragedy of all time. The castle walls made you fall in love, there were perfectly preserved statues everywhere. The color of the stone even had a soft pinkish hue to it. Everything about Verona is lovely, but not in any obvious sense of the word. Paris is romantic because it is glamourous, over the top, and has more glittery lights than any one place could need. Verona is amazing because, well.. it just is. An And with the ancient Arena located right in the center of your main Piazza, there are views every which way you turn. For tourists it is also about 500x easier to find your way around this place, a sort of medieval grid system was used which at least allowed us girls to get "lost" and then found again.. although..

So the real adventure began before we even arrived at our "Bed & Breakfast". The directions I was given by the daughter of the lady who owned it (apparently the only member of the family who spoke English) told me to take the bus from the train station, 6 stops, get off at the supermarket called PAM and then walk two more blocks to the B&B. Simple right? Well Alex & I decided we'd save the bus fair, and take in some extra scenery by just walking the 12 blocks. Then we stumble across PAM, perfect! So in we go to buy groceries and apparently alot of wine! We were trying to be savvy you see, using the kitchen we were provided with to cook our dinner instead of spend money. Pre-buy the wine. Be smart travellers! Well we exit PAM ladden down with bags and start walking. At this point we realize we have no clue where the street is we need to find. One helpful girl informs us that we actually aren't even in the right neighbourhood yet, we have to cross the bridge. Don't get me wrong, Verona is small. And in the end it only took us 1/2 an hour to get there, but we were seriously packing the contents of a small winery on our backs. I call up the B&B to ask for directions, and the daughter ends up coming to meet us and direct us back. By now its 5:30 PM and we are just so excited to be there, relax a bit and take a shower!

Well that maybe could have been the case, if we had actually checked in to a normal B&B. This was (as Alex's so perfectly described it) "Bull Shit & Bollocks". A house of madness! A spare room in the apartment of a Russian couple, who spoke zero English, and by the time of our arrival had consumed what I assume to have been a few (hundred) litres of wine. The husband first introduced himself as the cousin, but it was quite hard to understand as I watched drool pour from his mouth down his shirt. His wife as I said, not a word of English. Which might be understandable if she wasn't involved in tourism! He on the other hand, might have spoke English, or thought he did at least, but through the slurring and the saliva it was very hard to comprehend. The daughter unfortunately disappeared, so she couldn't help us decipher what was going on. We threw our food in the fridge and escaped to our room. I was the first to take a shower. 1 min of warm water, lather up the hair.. followed by freezing cold water. Ok so that wasn't happening. I came out and went to ask the couple, "Eez like deez ull ovaz deez Verona, yew knaw?". Hmm.. well I am fairly certain that one of the tourist destination capitals of Italy would have hot water but I was in no place to be bothered to argue. Now he had also asked us about 5 times our names, and the wife seemed to be getting agitated by the attention we were given. Back to the room I go.. and loud screaming ensues. All in Russian of course. Alex & I started contemplating whether we should actually pack up our crap and escape back to Venice that night, jump out the window, or simply lock ourselves in our room till morning. 3 hours later we were slightly terrified and still didn't know what to do. So we did the next best thing, grabbed some wine and high-tailed it out of there, hoping if all went well we could find a nice bench to sleep on and return in the AM.

We ended up having a wonderful evening in Verona! We walked all over the city, drinking our (newly discovered) Strawberry wine, and allowing the romantic city to spark up conversations of past love, heart ache, and other cheesy girly business. As we had left our "dinner" behind in the B&B we decided to treat ourselves to what else, pizza! The restaurant treated us like goddesses. Probably the best service I'd had yet in Italy. Maybe they felt bad for the two lonely girls in Verona, maybe we smiled just the right amount. Whatever the reason, it was tasty, we got free dessert! And life was good again. At about 2 AM we thought it would be safe to head back to our bed, and it probably would have been if we hadn't taken the route back the Crazies had told us to. We got stuck in a parking lot. Slightly lost, but we knew we could back track at least. Another genius idea from Alex, "this is the moment where it would be really useful to know Parkour" (this is next on the list of Things I Need to Learn in Life).

Some how we made it home. We even survived the night at our Hostel from Hell. And then the morning came, and we got up early to head to Juliet's. The husband was already hitting the bottle by 9 AM when we awoke, but we took our time anyways and wrote our letters to Juliet over coffee. And then off we went for our day of single lady romance! Wow. Was it ever incredible. I have dreamed of going to Juliet's balcony ever since I was a little girl. And as a huge English Lit buff in highschool it only furthered my desire. It really was a "I am actually here moment" for me. I could have spent hours in that amazing house, if only I could have kicked out all the other tourists.. we even grabbed ourselves some luck in love: by grabbing the boob of Juliet's bronze statue! And we sure did mail our letters. I will be checking the post regularly for the next several weeks. After Juliet's we decided to head to Arena. Along the way we took a little detour and amazingly enough, discovered the Cemetery of Verona. I can assure you not many tourists visit this ancient burial ground. And of course due to its purpose you wouldn't want them to, but I have to say I feel very fortunate to have stumbled upon it. The architecture itself was unreal, very massive and awe-inspiring. Inside, thousands of simple graves within a grand courtyard, enclosed by high columned-walls. And in these walls were the "rich" family plots. Wow. Marble statues, life-life carvings, gold, glitz, anything you can imagine. But the one thing I noticed that struck me, was that all of these plots had photos beside the names. Little oval glass frames, or some hung on an iron "tree", but almost all had pictures of the deceased. Seeing as how many of these graves were a couple hundred years old.. the pictures were obviously weathered and faded. But others some how looked almost as if they were still new. It was a very special moment to be in that place. And when we left again, we were hit by the sound of traffic, car horns and people. I thought if only those buried 250 years ago could see what surrounds them now? What would they say? Or I guess seeing as how they say what comes next is so much better, would they even be bothered to care?

We made our way back to Arena after that. And wow. Again another breath-taking site for sure. Thousands of years of history. As you walked below, around the oval, you could almost still feel the energy in the air. Gladiators fuelled by adrenaline and fear, fighting to the death to save themselves. How could you even stand the thought of waiting for such an event? It gave me goosebumps just imagining it. But then as you enter back to the main walkway, and out in to the intense sunlight, and up the never-ending stairs. You are given the feeling of being on top of the world! This is where the spectators and wealthy came for their weekend enjoyment. A place of laughter, cheering and bloodshed. Seems strange to us, but life was so very different back then. It's no surprise really that on our way out of Arena, we managed to get lost! Well not lost exactly, but stuck in those endless bone-chilling stone hallways. We'd see a ray of sunlight breaking through the rafters ahead, think we found our exit. And around the corner we'd turn to realize it was just a tiny window instead.

As we stepped back out of Arena, in to Piazza Erbe and the skin-soaking heat of the spring sun, we nearly kissed the ground! Alas, this was almost the end of our day in Verona. Another two hours spent wandering and grabbing lunch and we would be heading our way back to Venice. We did however have a very fabulous afternoon bite, ALMOST pizza again, but this time a little different. "Tarta Flambee" which was a tasty combination of a sort of tortilla, but much crispier and light, covered in all sorts of delicious toppings. I am now convinced that a pizza, or "tarta" can satisfy any appetite, at any point of hunger, at any time. There are just endless varieties for everyone.. and lets be honest, even a bad pizza here is still a pretty damn good one!

So there ends our epic Verona adventure. But don't worry.. we'll be back in early April for VinItalia, one of the biggest "wine festivals" in Europe. Word has it all you must do it arrive with a glass, and the vino flows freely. Along with "pane, proscuitto and formaggio" of course! (bread, meat and cheese). Ci vediamo presto! (See you soon)

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