Blogs from Verona, Veneto, Italy, Europe - page 11

Day 4, Saturday Verona to Padova We had a great night's sleep...it rained all night, but now the sun is out and we have had a great walk around Verona...had coffee and brioche at an outdoor cafe (three tables on a narrow street) next to the Dior shop.....bought cheese, roasted chestnuts, and a bottle of wine at the open air market....We are at the only internet cafe in town...no wifi here... The town was quiet when we headed out this morning around 9:30, but is jammed full of tourists now at mid day. We have seen very elegant locals...one woman in a white designer coat and black highheeled boots rode by us on her bike....In general the women are very stylish and thin... We will walk around the Roman Arena, eat, get our bags, and take ... read more

Verona, our first weekend trip of the semester, was incredible! We caught a 10:00 am train out of Venice and arrived in Verona a little after noon. It was our first train ride over here in Europe, and it actually went surprisingly well! Once in Verona, we grabbed some pizza (sadly, we were kind of craving true Italian food since mediocre cafeteria food is pretty much all we get) and set out to explore the city. The city is so beautiful and completely different than Venice. For one, it’s a more metropolitan city with a gorgeous, pedestrian only, historical center. It isn’t too touristy either, which is a complete 180 degree shift from living in Venice where tourists are more abundant than Venetians. The city is so romantic, with references to the Romeo and Juliet legend ... read more

This is not one of the main tourist traps in Northern Italy, but there were some nice pictures in our guidebook that made it look like a nice picturesque little town, so we thought we would check it out whilst we were in that direction. One thing that we noticed about Italian towns (including this one) is that as you approach them by road, they look particularly industrial and unattractive, making you think that you have made a big mistake going there. However, once you make your way to the centre (by following the target symbols on the road signs) they have more of the traditional Italian theme to them. Apart from that, the main thing to see was a bridge over the river and, well, that was about it really. It was obvious that this ... read more

Apologies for the lack of blogging, but work has been plenty and sleeping is consuming the majority of my free time. Anyway, this past weekend involved a journey north to see my first real opera, a performance of the Barber of Seville in Verona's Roman Theater. Best possible way to be introduced to opera. The adventure started off right with a stop at the Autogrill near Bologna for lunch. There are many Autogrills in Italy, but the one near Bologna is actually a huge bridge over the entire A1 that runs Rome-Milan. Inside said bridge are three floors of glory: a marketplace, a quick cafe, and a self-serve cafe. I went all-out to the self-serve cafe and ordered what I thought would be a half roasted chicken. What I got was an entire roasted chicken cut ... read more

Since I last left off, things have finally slowed down a little bit. For the rest of my birthday, we went across town and climbed a ways up to a castle area to take photos of the sunset, but unfortunately the sun was covered with clouds and didn't make for very good photos, although we got some great ones on the way up. We then went to a more local place on a side road for dinner, where we had weinerschnitzels, i'm not sure how you spell that, but basically breaded meat, our guide called it steak but it definitely was a white meat. Still, very good. Our teacher also bought our table some wine, the house red, which was surprisingly good. Afterwards, half the group headed back while the other half of us stopped for ... read more