Verona and Lake Garda

---

This weekend I ended up going to Verona with Katrin. I was supposed to go to Monaco and Nice with Susan but there was a train strike there so she couldn’t leave. I was so sad! But I still had a good weekend. Katrin and I left Florence on Friday mornig and arrived in Verona by 1pm. The city is beautiful! Imagine beautifully colored buildings with ivys flowing down the walls and shutters of all different types. There is a river that runs around the town and amazing piazzas nestled in the winding streets. We walked to the Roman forum and strolled around the theater and ruins. The view of the city from the top of the museum was spectacular! The day was beautiful—clear skies, free of clouds, and trees of all different colors—shades of yellow, red, and orange. Verona e bellisimo. After walking around the city and crossing the river we decided to sit in a café and have lunch. We got the usual—pasta and pizza with acqua naturale. It was an amazing afternoon. Later that night we arrived in Sirmione after taking a bus from Verona through Peschiera and a taxi to our hotel. Sirmione is a town on Lake Garda—Italy’s largest lake. The town sits on a little space of land jetting out into the lake. There is a medieval castle in the center of the town and cute little shops on cobblestone streets down the jetty. We walked through the town, over bridges, under arches, and past castles until we finally decided to eat some more pasta. The gelato was bene. I loved Lake Garda and slept well in our hotel that night. Breakfast the next morning was delicious. I finally got to eat my scrambled eggs together with toast and jam, bread and ham, amazing orange juice, and Italian coffee. We left the hotel and set out to explore Sirmione some more. Our day was filled with walking on the rocks, watching ducks and swans playing in the water, and taking lots of pictures. We left Sirmione cause it had begun to get cold and foggy. We traveled by bus back to Verona (while listening to Christmas music along the way). Verona was packed with tourists and the house of Juliet, supposedly where her balcony is from the Shakespeare play. The walls were covered with handwriting and love notes. We strolled around the city some more before stopping outside a café near the Colosseum to eat dinner. We took a train back to Verona for Saturday night and woke up on Sunday for Café Liberta then relaxed and worked on tests and projects. It was a relaxing weekend in Northern Italy.

---