Holiday Inn Verona Congress Centre Hotel

... having difficulty walking, and I just couldn't stop smiling the whole walk home about yet another random night in Italy. The next morning we watched some British Office as we ate (the American version is waaaaaaaaay better) then I had to get going to catch my train. I'd have 3 transfers again and was not looking forward to the long journey home. Apparently the second transfer was not on another train as I thought, but via bus, but no one really ...

... to Siena for a day trip and Jason nearly got arrested tryint to use a public toilet. I guess it costed 50 cents but he only had 3x20 cent coins and wasn't sure if the machine would take not exact change so jumped the turnstyle instead. Got screamed at and chased down by the italian bathroom police (a highly specialized elite force) so he put the money in and had the pee scared out of him (literally, as he ...

... I was going to do once I got there. I glanced at the train departure board, then headed off in the general direction I believed the lake to be. My instincts turned out to be right, and the ceter was so beautiful. There were some ferries that I thought might be fun to take on a tour, but I guess they were just for going to other towns around the lake, so instead I just wandered around Desenzano. I thought it might be weird to be by myself ...

... as we had had enough of Venice and decided that we would rather be in Verona. <br><br>Even on a Monday night, there were lots of people out and about enjoying the restaurants &#8211; we notice that while we are having dinner, most people in Europe are having drinks or coffee and they eat later. We also have a theory that TV in Europe is pretty lame (American shows from years ago) because everyone is out, rather than home watching it.

... and Tara went into the toilet and found it was one in the ground that you had to squat over so she refused to go.<br><br>We then went to have gelati and search the old city for toilets and found some near the tower which everyone refused to climb as they said they have climbed enough towers. They also refused to go into a church as well. We decided to have lunch before we went to the Roman ruins north of the river. These included a small amphitheatre and lots of ...

... We also went from having German co-travellers to Italian ones. It was certainly pleasant hearing Italian for change. Arriving into Verona, we appreciated that it was a bit warmer. We checked into a nice motel which was great as the bathroom was nice and we had our own little room where we could shut the door.<br><br>We were a short walk from the old city where you walked through the arches of the old wall to a piazza where the ...

... There is a statue of Juliette in the garden that is famous and tourist are to touch her chest for GOOD LUCK. Everyone was doing that ritual and taking pictures. Verona is a beautiful city, that has the largest open opera house in the world. It was a mideviel colleseum, similar to the ruins in Rome. There is also a church that holds an organ where Mozart carved his initials in and his ...

... built with pink marble in the 1st century AD. It is still used today as Verona's opera house and is the 3rd-largest Roman ampitheatre in existence ...

... highest degree (I might even say that it approaches the Form of Beauty which Plato described). Religion, reason, and artistry combined into one structure...no matter what your faith, or your lack thereof, you can't fail to be awed. All over Verona, churches grace the landscape. For me, student of art and religion that I am, it's a paradise of sight. Each church is different. San Anastasia, with its ...

... i had never seen one before, and you should have seen my face when i walked in and realized that the toilet was in the floor. talk about culture shock. afterwards we went to the arena, which is supposedly the 2nd best preserved ruins of a roman arena (the 1st being the coliseum in rome). we paid to go in and walked all the way to the top, which was incredible!! but it was steep and i really thought i was going to take a ghastly tumble. after that ...