Romeo, oh Romeo!

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We spent our second day in Venice not actually in Venice...we took a day trip to Verona. I don't know how I managed to do it but I talked Matt into seeing an opera! There's a beautiful Roman amphitheatre there built around 30 AD and is now used for opera performances...the Arena di Verona. It's the third largest amphitheatre in existance. They have an opera festival every summer and Saturday, September 1st was the last night of the festival. They were performing "Aida" which, beyond it being an opera, I knew nothing about, but I talked Matt into it. Tickets were about $30 a person for the nosebleed seats and you're giving a seat on the stone steps of the amphitheatre, so we got blow-up seat cushions to protect our tushes from the hard cold marble underneath us. Because the opera didn't start until 9pm and the last train left Verona to head back to Venice at 10:30pm, we rented a car for the day in Venice at Piazzale Roma. Since Matt didn't have his driver's license anymore (wallet was lost in Spain earlier in the week) I got to drive. Oh, goody 😊 I don't do well driving strange cars in busy strange cities. I did great on the highway between Venice and Verona but once in Verona I really thought we were going to die...I think Matt did too. Luckily, we made it to a parking spot with us and the rental car still in one piece.

First place we went to visit is Juliet's house. Many people may know of Verona because it's where Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" took place. While they were fictional characters, the house that is now claimed as Juliet's belongs to the Dal Cappello family...AKA the Capulet family. It attracts who knows how many tourists to it's beautiful balcony and the bronze statue of Juliet in the small courtyard. It's said that it's good luck to rub the statue's right breast...which is now a different color than the rest of the statue and is very shiny from the millions of tourists who have touched her. One of the biggest attractions to the house though is the wall leading into the courtyard. It's covered with graffiti in paint and notes stuck to the wall with gum...love notes from millions of tourists. Matt and I left one there..."M & M" in a heart 😊

After Juliet's house we headed back to the main square where the amphitheatre was, just in time to see a protest begin. It was a little scary at first, not knowing what they were saying because then you don't know how dangerous things can get. I asked a few people who looked like locals what they were protesting but their English wasn't good. All we could get from the locals was that the protesters were stupid and it had something to do with the government. We settled in at a nearby cafe to watch the show from a safe distance and before long we started noticing that people were already lining up to go into the amphitheatre. Good thing we lined up early too! Since the nosebleed seats are first come first serve, if we wanted to see anything we had to get there early and get a decent seat.

When we first walked in we were handed something, when when we looked at it later ended up being a birthday candle and a piece of paper in a plastic wrapper. Luckily, the piece of paper explained what it was in four different languages, one of them being English. The first opera ever to be performed at the Arena di Verona was "Aida" and, at the time, there was no electric lighting (was performed around 1913 I think) so the audience lit candles. It's become a tradition. Really, these tiny little birthday candles only last through the first scene or two before they either burn out or are blown out but it's gorgeous to see so many candles lit while you're sitting in a 2,000 year old Roman amphitheatre.

I hate to admit it but we only stayed through the first two acts. Matt was holding up well but it had already been almost 2 hours...I couldn't see him lasting another 2 hours through another 2 acts so we left during intermission between acts 2 and 3. I enjoyed it, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if we had had better seats...we were so far off to the side and so far in the back it was hard to hear sometimes. Luckily, I bought a program that gave the synopsis and the lines in English so we at least knew what was going on. All in all, it was a great experience though.

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Photos

Lucky Juliet
Here are Matt and I with Juliet's statue...for luck!

Our place on the wall
It's hard to see but that says "M & M" in a heart.

At the Opera
Here we are at the opera...you can see part of the amphitheatre and many of the candles.