Blogs from Verona, Veneto, Italy, Europe - page 9

I haven't been able to update until now because we didn't have a dongle, then when we got one it didn't work. It still doesn't. :l anyway. So we actually went to Venice after much discussion. It is the only place you will find where there are no cars – in Venice. Well at least the main attraction part. We stayed in the RV at a caravan park in Venice, then took the bus across the bridge to the outskirts of the centre. The shops there are beautiful, with their amazing masks and Murano glass. The masks they have are really awesome and we had trouble choosing the ones we wanted. We found a shop that we loved and bought a couple. The buildings are beautiful too. They were really cute with flower pots on the ... read more

After spending 2 wonderful days in Milan it was time to head somewhere quieter. We decided to head to Verona vera Lake Como and Lake Garuda. Once again the air pollution was very high. The sky was grey and you couldn't see very far. It is a short trip to Lake Como from Milan. We arrived and immediately remarked how it reminded us of Queenstown only 20 toes bigger. It was very quiet with very few people about. Looking at the large number of boats that ply the waters of the lake it gets extremely busy in summer. We only drove to one end of the lake and sadly didn't see George Cluney's sumptuous manor on the shores of the lake. We continued on to Lake Garuda. The lake is twice as big as Como. The ... read more

I have managed to land in just the cutest of towns ... hence the title of this blog! As with anything with me though, getting here was not just a straight line. There has to be story or two just on how I got here. I am one bumbling episode after the next. First, I was locked into the hotel. My Hotel Milano is a small hotel so there is only reception services until 20:30 and the owner comes in probably to prep for breakfast which starts at around 8 am. Because of that I had actually settled my bill last night (and had mentioned that I would be leaving quite early). When I came into Milan, she had shown me how to use the fob to get into the building after hours. She never bothered ... read more

Most of the people I spend time are architecture students and as such we have all perfected the balancing act between practicality and creativity. Then we met the art and literature majors. This encounter led us directly to the Italian city of Romance and Whimsy: Verona. First stop: the stadium. The stadium in Verona is a mini-colosseum, except for it has a well-preserved hole in the center where they used to hoist animals and fighters up into the ring (the colosseum's main floor has collapsed revealing the various passages and rooms under the ring). This was especially entertaining for us, because the pit meant we could pretend we were bad-ass Spartans like in the movie 300! Naturally we took turns being King Leonidas who kicks the "messenger" (usually my friend devon) into "the pit of death." ... read more

I left Venice and caught the 7:09 train to Verona, as I planned to visit here and Bologna and go to Florence all in one day in order to make best use of my interrail pass, which I found to be achievable, happily. Encountered my first Italian lech on the train - a guy who shamelessly stared at me the whole journey despite me asking him what he was staring at and looking angry. I know it's best to be ignorant but I can't help it grrrr. Bought my 10 euro Verona Card on arrival and got the bus into town, where my first stop was the Roman Arena which is beautifully preserved. I then walked to Juliet's house and visited that and went on her balcony etc. Unfortunately didn't add to the love graffiti on ... read more