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Published: September 7th 2017
Geo: 45.442, 10.9955
Hello all,
Arrived at the city of Romeo and Giulietta and they are definitely celebrated here! Left our appartamento in Milano with more than enough time to get to the train station. We finally met the building manager, no inglese, and found out where/how to recycle our garbage (mandatory), he told us where to find a Tabacchi to buy our metro tickets (no, not there...) and confirmed the route to the closest metro station (we got that right) Very nice guy and it was fun to try out my baby Italiano... The station was very close so didn't have to push our bags too far on the cobblestones, but navigating extremely narrow streets with cars driving past pushing bags is always an adventure! I'm making it sound worse than it was actually, it was really no big deal, but where is the fun in telling that?
Bought our tickets and made it to the Centrale Stazione with an hour to spare, so sat down for the duration. The Verona train and right time came up on the reader board and said binario (track) 15, in the back of my mind I knew something wasn't right but couldn't put my finger on
it. We went to the right track and it was an old regional train, not the Frecciarossa (fast speed) train we had booked. I'm glad we didn't get on it as it's like taking the slow boat, lots of stops and slow... What I had forgotten was you look at where the train is ultimately going not just where you are stopping off at, our train was eventually going to Venezia and not just Verona... So anyway we got that figured out and went back to the board to see which was the correct track for us, looking at the actual train number for the correct place to go ;-). Will try to have that little piece of info at the front of my mind next time ... With 15 minutes until the train was supposed to leave it finally came up and gave us the binario number, we went there, but the sign at the track said it was the train to Napoli! there was a whole crowd of confused people I can tell you. Eventually, someone over the loudspeaker announced the correct track number and we all moved en masse to binario 7, the train pulled in with
literally 7-8 minutes until departure time. We all got on and I think we left within 2 minutes of the actual printed time to leave! Anyway, it was a good trip, love train travel especially in comparison to the plane, it also was less than 2 hours so not too long. For those thinking about coming, the train from Milano to Verona cost us 29,50 euros for 2 tickets in 2nd class, so not bad in my opinion as far as value for "dollar" goes.
Pulled into Verona and had to wait in the taxi line for probably 15 minutes, the taxi driver called our hostess to tell her we were coming and to get more exact directions to get us here, we're on a very small street and the address is a bit confusing. Taxi cost 10,70 euros, well worth the cost, we'll be calling on our way out to take us back to the station as it's way too far to walk with bags and it will be nice to have the door to door service ;-)
Our hostess, Daniela, met us at the door and is a lovely person, owns an art gallery in the main piazza here
and the apartment is filled with great art. I'll have photos of the apartment for you to see. It's very clean and really nicely appointed, we have everything we could possibly need, she even filled the fridge! Super nice!
We then walked out and about, found the main piazza and Juliet's house, lots of us tourists there, lots of graffiti from couples writing their names on the passageway to her house. Some shops doing great business off of the whole thing right next door.
Onwards, ran into some cool Roman ruins in the middle of the street, the Romans enjoyed Verona and we'll be visiting their coliseum tomorrow, I think it may be the second largest one outside of Rome, not sure.
Ran into one of the churches we were planning on seeing so paid the 6 euros to get into the group of 4 of them, the first we saw was St Fermo, It was built between 1065 - 1143, there are actually 2 churches, one built on top of the other, photos to follow. It was super interesting to see the wooden ceiling built in the shape of the bottom of a boat and frescos that are 1,000 years old! The
second church we saw was St. Anastasia and it was beautiful, the ceiling was Amazing, it was restored 6 years ago, but it was all the original and the paint was so vibrant it looked new, it was begun in 1290! Wasn't really completed until the early 1600's and the facade was never completed. The wooden doors on the outside were from the 1500's and are still standing.... They have a famous fresco in this church by Pisanello it's St. George and the Princess, very cool.
We then walked by the Adige River on our way back to the apartment, rested for a little bit and then went out for dinner, the restaurants we had wanted to go to were closed since it's Monday ;-) so we stopped by Amburgheria Restaurant and had hamburgers Italian style, with 6 onion rings that cost 3 euros, those were some expensive rings comparatively speaking to the US. Photos to follow. After this we went in search of gelato, am afraid none will live up to our experience in Milano, but we're going to do our best trying to find more like it if it kills us trying (or 5 pounds whichever comes first)!
We
had a nice walk along the river and took some selfies and great view photos of the bridge and surrounding area, found a decent looking gelato place and went in and bought just a regular ciocolatto for me and stracietella and caffe for Jim, not as good, but we'll keep trying and keep you up to date on our searches.
Now back at the apartment and about to get ready for bed, it's 9 pm but by the time I get ready it will be another hour or so before I actually get into bed.
Bad on the steps today, right now only have 11370, 12 flights, that comes out to 4.9 miles.
Update on the school, called them this morning and talked with Agnese, she sounds so nice... She said don't worry, they'll find me a place to stay and let me know Wednesday or Thursday! I said I was worried, and she said don't worry.... Soooo, I really need to trust that they know what they are dong and go with the flow.... I really like to know what I'm doing in advance so I'm WAAAAYYYYY out of my comfort zone right now, but I do know that God is with
me and He will be with me even if the school isn't! Will keep you updated on the situation as it flows and no doubt will learn some valuable lessons from this.
To my older grandchildren, mio nipoti, Jonathan have you started school yet? Jonathan, Orin, and Marcus if you are reading this I'd love to have you write me and tell me what you are doing and what you think of all the places we are seeing. Nonna loves you all!!
It's now 10:19 just had a great FaceTime with Adrienne, Marcus, and Blake and will really head off to bed for good now. Just have to plug all the electronics in to get charged up overnight!
A presto and ciao!
Wendy
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Karen Hull
non-member comment
Where's the knife and fork? Looks yummy! You must eat buffalo mozzarella while you are there, and think of me while you enjoy every morsel!