Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou? - Verona

  Verona, Italy
Saturday, July 5, 2008

We arrived in Verona around 1pm and found our way to the bus stop quite easily.After getting on the bus going in the wrong direction, we realised it, jumped off and headed back the right way.

We arrived at our hotel and it is really nice. As with many small hotels like this, there is no air conditioning. Oh dear, it is extremely hot here.However, we do have a state of the art fan and unlike the Gellert are able to leave the window open.

Hotel Arena room

 

The Arena at dusk

We are really close to the main Piazza Bra where the arena is. It is really impressive and we went to collect our tickets for the opera on Friday night. The lady gave them to us no problem, no queue for a change and smiling said "dress code". We have paid through the nose for these tickets and have come suitably prepared for the dress code. It is quite expensive here. We bought 2 fruit drinks and 2 glasses of water and it was 19 euros! However, like us they have ways of coping. Check out the Italian pound shop!

There's a pound shop everywhere

. The rest of the first night, we took it easy and had a hot but lengthy sleep.

We had bought a Verona card which covered us for travel around the city and entry to museums. It was quite good because being frugal Scots, we made the most of it the next day. After a really nice breakfast here at the hotel, we visited the Museo lapidario. Basically a lot of really old stones and carvings. Interesting but difficult to find your way around if you don't speak Italian. On our wanderings we were able to partake of the WC facilities in the Piazza Bra.

Fancy loos in Piazza Bra

They looked fabby but were policed by the grumpiest man in Italy. We were trying to get water from the wrong sink(I think) so he was grumping at us in Italian and then when we left, he gave mum a really dirty look. I pointed out to her that that may have been because she said in a really cheery voice Grazias (which for the uninitiated amongst you is Spanish). He must have thought she was taking the ****.

Piazza Erbe

We also went to the piazza Erbe which was lovely.

Romeo and Juliet

Romantic messages

After that we went to Juliet's house and saw a re-enactment of the famous balcony scene. On the walls of the entrance to the house, visitors have written messages of love for their sweethearts.

We went through the market in the Piazza Erbe, bought some fruit and went to have lunch. We found a really nice, authentic restaurant and had a good lunch. We were offered horse meat (a speciality here) but we couldn't do it.After our afternoon siesta which is a complete must in this heat, we got ready for the opera.

I think we looked the part and felt really good, we had taken time to look at the people going into the same expensive seats we have tickets for the night before and we were quite happy we were doing Scotland proud!

Off to the opera

It was more than we had hoped for. We both agree that it was worth the traveling just for that. Tosca was fab as was Cavaradossi. Scarpia, a bit comic book evil but still great. The sets were stunning. Explosions. 40 feet high statues. Amazing! Tosca had to sing Vissi D'arte twice because the audience were shouting for more. Cavaradossi was being urged to do the same in his signature aria but I think the maestro was aware of the time. Also, I was complimented on my outfit from the woman sitting behind me. Not bad, I think!

We left and had dinner at 1am in the morning in the open air and it was just getting comfortably cool.

Today we have done nothing except sleep and laze about. That's what has been great being here. We are off to Florence tomorrow and we are so laid back that we don't even know what train we'll get. We need to go to bologna to change and so that's what we'll do. Mum has developed a wee head cold which is a shame but she assures me that she doesn't feel too bad. Will keep you posted. I'm looking forward to my singing lessons in Florence so speak to you later.