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Published: March 4th 2010
It is Thursday here in Verona. It is cloudy outside and just about everyone has left for the Milan airport to head to Paris. About 6 other students are headed to Belgium (brrrrr!) and 1 is actually going to London. Ben and I decided to stay back in Verona to take it easy this weekend and make sure our Euro’s don’t grow feet and walk away from us. Students that are around me are probably sick of me ranting about this but last week I got on excel and made a budget spreadsheet to get an idea of how much I will spend and its looking like I’m going to be just fine in terms of money. Much thanks again to you who helped make this trip possible and certainly less stressful (you know who you are.) Also, I figured it’d be ok to stay around this upcoming weekend because Tuesday night, me and about nine other students booked flights to Prague at the end of March. I heard Prague is the best city to see in Eastern Europe, so it looks like I am going to be getting a taste of that as well! So every weekend is booked up
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Bridge to CasteVeccio in the background.now, I’ve got my plans ahead of me, and its crazy to know that I will be experiencing Munich, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Prague, Cinque Terre (Italian Riviera), Rome, Florence, Greece, Barcelona, and then Switzerland in the next two and a half months. I can’t get over how fortunate I am, its really unbelievable. I am very blessed. Anyway, I will go ahead and get started on the recollection of the past two days. I learned a whole bunch, thanks to Martin who literally is a walking encyclopedia, but interesting, not boring like a lot of encyclopedias. To clarify, Martin is not an official teacher, he is just the program supervisor. I’ve blogged about him in earlier entries but he’s this old guy that more and more reminds me of my Grandpa Lionel. Just like Grandpa L, Martin served in the military for many years. He looks like Grandpa, and his grumpiness isn’t intimidating. Rather, it leads you to chuckle under your breath and in any uncanny way, makes you to grow more fond of him (if you knew Lionel, you know what I’m talking about). He is not missing a left eye like Grandpa, but he is missing his left front
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the ancient roads that roman chariots would drive on to conduct trade. Note the ridge that the wheels eroded away. tooth if that counts for anything at all! When Martin tells a story or talks, I can’t not listen. He is engaging though he doesn’t even seem to be trying that hard. He’s basically become the trip Grandpa haha. So anyway, this Tuesday we get out of class early and meet him in the lobby to go get the historic tour of Verona. We were supposed to have this our first weekend we came in town, but poor weather led us to reschedule it. We head to the bus stop and get off at the main stop near the CastelVeccio. This old castle was built in the 1300’s and housed the military. Whereas most castles in that time period used to house the Lords of the town, this one is different. The Lord’s of this Castle slept and lived outside the castle walls nearby while the military slept inside. Near the castle is a big arch and under the arch are some of the preserved Roman roads that date back to 250 years Before Christ. Verona was a major trading city with Rome, so many chariots and horses passed back and forth from here and Rome. Martin points out (see
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A view from Piazza Bra. picture) a ridge in the smooth ancient stone that wheels from the carts eroded away. Many of the old horses that could make the trip to Verona, but not back, were killed, butchered, and eaten. Horse meat is still popular in this town because of this. From here we head down one of the main streets to the Piazza Bra, the largest Piazza of three in Verona. Bra literally means “open space/area” and this place is quite vast. The Arena (3rd largest coliseum in italy), the opera house, and the town hall are all here. There is also a fountain and park here as well. It’s a great place to people watch. We see an old dude in a bow tie and I snap a pic of him. Martin gives us some more history, most interesting of which is the use of the town hall building before it was town hall. They actually used to house prostitutes there. We snap some pics and check out some of the upcoming shows in the arena and opera house. Romeo and Juliet is coming the 20th of March and we all consider going. The Arena only has a few shows every year, this
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Walking into the arena... theme music from gladiator ensues. summer Rod Stewart is scheduled to play. We head to the arena then and there are some guys dressed up in Roman guard attire. Martin says we can get our picture taken with them but suggests we do that in Rome instead. As we head inside, scenes from the movie gladiator are playing in my mind, when Maximus Decimus Meridius and his crew are about to enter the Colisseum and destroy everything in their path. We get out in the center and Martin tells us the uses of the arena in the past and the rituals that go on in the shows it puts on today. There are two basic levels of the Colisseum and it seats what I believe he said to be 15,000. There used to be a third seating section back in the day but it is gone now (to give you an idea, the Roman Colisseum has 4). Just about everyone in the town would come watch the gladiators tear each other apart in these ancient show downs. Much like a Sunday Football game in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the entire town would shut down when these events took place. Lower level seats were given to the
wealthy and higher up in socio economic status, the higher the seats, the lower on the wealth chain you were. The highest sections were reserved for women and lastly slaves. The gladiators were like celebrities, almost as big in terms of fame as the emperor himself. But Martin says the real heroes of the town, the big hanchos, were the chariot drivers. These were the men that got all the fame and fortune. They were extremely powerful, and extremely respected, sometimes more so than the emperor himself. There is a vast, pool like pit in the center of the ground in the arena. Martin says Alligators were thrown in here in the past where people would jump in and wrestle and probably sometimes get mauled to death. Nowadays, that pit is used for the orchestra. If it rains during or before an orchestra, the person that has the command to stop the performance mid-show is the first chair violinist. If his instrument gets wet, its done for, so he has the final say in the matter. With a snap of his fingers, people are ushered out of the arena and the show is rescheduled. Refunds are usually given! After Martin’s
short lesson he leaves us some time to explore and tells us to meet him outside in about 30 minutes. A nice Asian tourist who speaks broken English takes a group pic for us… “3…2…1… Ash-onne (action)!” he says. We head out from there and 5 of us guys go to a small little joint that is set up like a buffet. I buy this delicious dish called Focacce, which is a toasted buttered soft yet somewhat crispy bun with cheese mushrooms and sausage scattered within it. I also get a brownie in the shape of a pie. I had eaten earlier, but I splurge here, and later top it off with gelato. It was worth it. We meet up with the rest of the crew and we end up going to the oober touristy Juliet’s balcony where a bronze statue of Juliet is in the center of the courtyard. Other tourists snap pictures while they grab her right breast which is said to bring luck in finding the love of your life. Some pay the not so worth it fee to go up in the balcony. Apparently, the Montague and Capulet families closely modeled two rival families in a
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The guys minus Bryan on the tower of Lamberti. certain time period in Verona and this was one of the families houses so they ended up just deeming it Juliet’s balcony. Yea the story took place here in Shakespeare’s play, but it’s a tourist trap and a half. Needless to say, its something you got to see if you are visiting Verona. Romeo has a house also but its not really visited or made into a very big deal. The day comes to a nice conclusion as we head to the top of the Torre de Lamberti (Lamberti bell tower) and get a great view of the city and take some great pics. I get a double scoop of gelato with a group of people afterwards (Coconut and yogurt and berry) then we head home and I sleep for a good three hours. Great conclusion to the day.
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emily Thiel
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this sounds so fun! i laughed about grandpa and martins tooth haha but anyways hope you have an amazing weekend! love you