'Go past the fire light and walk through the wall....' Without a map in Verona

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Jennie and I took a day trip into Verona on Saturday....call us crazy? We thought so too. It was worth the adventures and 8+ hours of trains however! The beautiful quirk about day trips is that they always must start bright and early in order to take full advantage of the time....buongiorno 7:15 am train ride. Another dark morning waking up to the pitter patter of rainfall on the Torino cobblestone. The train ride to Verona is about 3.5 hours so we should have arrived in Verona at 1015ish but the train was delayed a bit, as per usual treinattalia. I have learned that it's important to always add an hour of train travel time when traveling within Italy. Which is common with travel almost anywhere, delays happen, and delays happen quite often here With treinattalia (Italy's common rail service.) we arrived in Verona around 1130, so plenty of time to sightsee!

Fun fact: Torinos main train station is Torino Porta Nuova, and Veronas train stations is Verona Porta Nuova. Easy to remember if you're ever traveling between the two cities 😉

From the train station we took a bus into the center of the city. Our first destination was Juliets house. While we were standing by the arena looking at a screenshot I had of a map, an employee simply knew we were tourists and said, pointing, Juliets house that way! If we didn't already know that's the number one touirst attractions in Verona, we know now! A week ago I watched Letters to Juliet, with my host family, a movie with Amanda Seyfried and that's what actually made me eager to see Verona and Juliets balcony....simply because I knew I was so close to that movie scene. Its incredible that in the very same courtyard where tourists gather daily to see Juliets blacony, many locals live right there as well, sharing the same courtyard as this touristic destination of what was Shakespeares inspiration for Juliets balcony. We noticed most of their blinds shut probably to ignore all the tourists.

Romeo, oh Romeo, where for art thou thy Romeo? My words too, Juliet. I stood on your blacony waiting...but my Romeo did not show up. Where is he? I wrote you an email asking that question, so please reply soon. Yes, really, I did write Juilet a letter....not on old fashioned hand written letter like you would imagine to hang on the walls. I wrote her an email. In Juliets 'house' there is a room with computers to write an email to Juliet. I'll let you guys know if she answers my love question.

After Juliets house we went for a stroll to find lunch. I thought it would be a good idea to veer away from the busy more 'touirst' areas, and find a small local place to eat. Oops, not a top notch idea! We ended up finding a place that seemed Like local Verona cuisine, but it was awful. Pizza and risotto...not fresh nor very tasteful. Usually going down smaller streets can be a good way to find cheap local cuisine....this was cheap, but not delicious. Tourist try's at local cuisine In Verona...failure. However, Jennie did try a spritz Drimk which is a local wine drink in Verona so that was at least tasteful! Another important thing to note when traveling to Italy.....the bread brought prior to the meal. It's usually not complimentary Like we're used to in the states. At this particular place there was a 2 euro charge for the bread. Upside is no tipping when eating at sit down restaurants in Italy.

We went to Juliet's tomb, which is also part art museum. The tomb was farther away from the main piazza, so we took a big to find it. We also went without a map in Verona simply bencaustic it is such a small city and we were not rush in trying to find locations. We found many people who were helpful when we asked for directions, however, there was still some miscommunication of words to use. Two woman who gave us directions said to 'go past the the fire light' (stop light) and 'through the wall' (there was a break in the wall.) Humorous directions, and also successful directions because we did find our way to Juliets tomb! Juliets house is by far more off the tourist attraction. Unlike Juliets balcony, the tomb is not to be signed with love notes, but over the years tourist have loaded love notes onto the walls. Now, an employee accompanies

A walking tour is always a successful way to see a city, and even better...a free walking tour. We ended our time in Verona with a walking tour I had found on the wonderful Google.com. The walking tours ad us start in a main piazza, walk to churches, the bell tower, Romeos house, The river and the area. This is what time allowed us to see...also what the rain allowed us to do. A portion of our evening in Verona was rained on, so we cut touring short and enjoyed cafe until our train left. The arena is quite similar to the looks of the colleseum....just mini.

This is for sure the season of rain in Italy....it's rained almost daily for a week now, and will continue! We will again be venturing out of Italy next weekend and going to Paris! But firs, a week wihem the students....focus this week, Alice in Wonerland, and a lesson on Hawaii or New York....to be determined.

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