Blogs from Verona, Veneto, Italy, Europe
May 25th 2012
25thMay 2012 Friday Our little Granddaughter Imogen is 1 today – where did that year go!! Romeo Romeo wherefore art though Romeo? – well we did not see him but we were in Verona. Juliet’s house had the balcony fitted in 1935! But Shakespeare did base his tragedy on real Italian families. The walls into the courtyard are covered in pledges of love and once again there is a wall of padlocks where the betrothed lock their love!! There is a statue of Juliet in the courtyard and and packed with lots of tourists. Lovely expensive shopping area. We also visited the Arena one of the largest Roman amphitheatres in the world. The plazas are very swish and the streets very narrow The Torre dei Lamberti you can climb, however, in total there are 368 steps ... read more
May 14th 2012
The first destination today was The Duomo, which I'm told means the main cathedral of the town. It is large, and filled with interesting sights and sounds, which unfortunately included a vacuum cleaner. I wish it had included the organs, because those things are enormous. Speaking of organs, I've had to look at a bunch of crucified Christs today, and noticed in a lot of them that the soldiers appeared to have speared him right in the gallbladder. I got some satisfaction thinking his last act may have been to spray his tormentors with hot bile, and I imagined it melting their skin like the Alien Queen's blood in Aliens. My mother does not think the gallbladder theory holds much water, and my career as an art historian ended as quickly as it began. After that ... read more
May 13th 2012
I am afraid of bidets. There's one lurking in the corner of our bathroom. It's spattered in blood, which I hope is from one of my father's explosive midnight nosebleeds and not because the pressure tore the rectum of the previous tenant. This is an aspect of Europe I may not embrace. I'm sure readers are waiting with bated breath. After writing my first blog entry I went back to sleep for several hours. The parents also had weird sleeps, punctuated by nosebleeds. As a result of some supermarket adventures yesterday we had ingredients for a delicious breakfast of yoghurt and fresh fruit and prunes. Raisins seem not to exist in Italy. It is written in the Italian constitution that all grapes are to be made into wine. The coffee maker is a stove-top one and ... read more
February 18th 2012
I am currently in Verona, Italy! It is so amazing. Allie and I spent the day eating pasta, wandering the streets, and seeing Juliet's balcony! We love it so much here! Our hostel is at a home stay and it is very cute. We even have a balcony. Tomorrow we head out to Venice!... read more
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene!!
Published: December 12th 2011Europe » Italy » Veneto » Verona
December 12th 2011
Hello again all! Saturday morning was an early morning, but well worth it. Before coming to Italy Chiara asked me if there was anything really specific I would like to see. Well, the answer was I would like to see Como, Florence, Rome, Venice, Cortona, Milan, Switzerland, maybe the Alps, a couple of real Italian Ferrari’s…there were a million things I wanted to see in Italy. However, seeing as we only had ten days and I didn’t want to get too far away from Chiara’s home I looked on the handy-dandy map of Italy my Mom sent me and Verona caught my eye. Didn’t seem too far away, and Chiara confirmed that indeed it wasn’t! Chiara e-mailed me a bit before I left to tell me that she found a pretty handy way to get there ... read more
November 23rd 2011
Verona I always said that we would get to Verona on this trip and we did even if it was just for the day. After dragging the kids out of bed and onto the train by 7am we arrived in Verona early to enjoy the day there. Verona is often described as a small Florence and you can see why. It has a cosmopolitan feel about it. By lunch the piazzas were full of people in the cafes, sitting in the sun sipping on Aperol spritzers, a local drink that could become one of my favourite afternoon drinks, really refreshing and tasty. It is a much quieter town that has its own mini colosseum, the Arena, which they still use for concerts. I would love to have had the opportunity to go to see any performance ... read more
September 18th 2011
Lake Garda and Verona We stayed a week at Lake Garda in a hired Camper Van and had such a great week. A great week to top of a great trip. The weather was perfect 31 everyday, we took a boat trip on the lake and took the Train to Verona which we loved. We also took the kids back to Gardaland to top of the end of there trip again David did no scary rides and made everyone sit on the little kids Train ride just to get the feel of the park. David and I even made it all the way to Garda without having a fight about directions How things change ... read more
September 1st 2011
We were married in Verona, at the Tomb of Juliet. What could be more romantic therefore but to return to Verona on the eve of our Tenth Anniversary. We were to have two nights only in Verona. This short stay was on account that a) we had been here before and b) we had a rendevous in Misano for round 13 of the moto gp season. Verona is a beautiful petite city, which of course is famous for Romeo & Juliet. The official population of Verona is less than 300,000 people, but with the large numbers of visitors present in the summer, it does get rather crowded. This is not a problem of course until you want to find an Osteria or Nice little Tratoria for lunch. Speaking of which I would urge anyone to avoid ... read more
July 17th 2011
Italietta’s birthday! Miguel’s brother, Giacomo, and his wife Francesca came to Verona to celebrate Italietta’s birthday. We all missed Martina, but it was nice to have the immediate family all together to celebrate Italietta’s 80th birthday. It was also my brother’s birthday. Mike is fifty years old today, and he was born just a few kilometers from Verona, in a town called Vicenza. We all lived here on a street called Via Marsela, just about one kilometer away from the center of Verona. Strange to think that I lived in this town 50 years ago! I have some memories of the town, particularly of the hill where our old apartment building still stands, and the view of Verona from the top of the hill. I also remembered a park we called “Bambini Park” which is still ... read more
