Verona for two

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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 dining at one of tourist traps on Piazza Erbe or Piazza Bra'. Dont get me wrong, these places are fine for a chat with friends over a glass of aperol spritz and campari soda, but they dont do justice to Verona for a sit down meal.

Arriving on the evening of 01 September, 2011 after an un eventful journey from Bologna airport via Modena, we promptly checked into the Hotel Verona, and sauntered on foot through the city in time for our reservation at Resturante Arche, a wonderful resturant with quite some pedigree. We were blown away by quality of the place ten years back when we had our wedding dinner. The company who planned our wedding (Verona for Two) obviously with local knowledege recommended this venue over others such as Resturant Dante and others. At the time the whole resturant was reserved for our special event. Imagine our surpise ten years later again we were the only patrons again (this time two people rather than the eight other loved ones at the time). Later on we put this down to the last night of the Verdi's Nabucco

Walking though the patterned glass doors of the main door you are confronted firstly by soft tone lighting, with wainscoated walls, then a very curteous greeting from the head waiter. After being shown to our table, which had a nice touch by being partitioned off from others via an ornate hand carved lattice screens, a complementry glass of prosecco and hors d'oeuvre. The menu option is typical italian -> anti pasti, primi plati, secondi platti, then of course a dessert followed by coffee (and small sweets). The food and wine were both fantastic, I felt bad for not being able to finish everything.

At one point in the night, we mentioned to the waiter our previous experience here, which prompted some minutes later the owner coming over to say hello, then apologize for not remembering us. At the end of the meal we thanked our curtious hosts, shook hands and parted saying
"see you in ten years then!'
"I hope not so long" was the owner reply
A very nice end to to start of our holiday in italy.

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