Don't worry, this isn't another tale of us getting lost or having a mishap, I was just trying to think of something mildly amusing.
After a long day of trains, trains and trains we alighted in Verona in the late afternoon and found our B&B located in a handy part of the town near the Roman Arena. On the way to the hotel we walked past the Arena and through the main shopping streets of the town so had a rough idea of its layout. We were in need of food and our B&B host gave us a great recommendation - a place just a couple of blocks away called Tabia. It was a northern Italy, Alps-style place with hearty, northern food to match. We haven't eaten at restaurants much yet on the trip, so this might have contributed to how much we enjoyed the meal, or it might just have been that good, but we really loved the food, and our waiter was very friendly and helpful despite our terrible Italian. We enjoyed a carafe of local Veneto sparkling wine with some crudités (fancy!) with dips, then I had a wild boar tagliatelle and Simon had spinach ravioli.
The next day we set off for some exploring, starting with "Juliet's" house. Of course Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona and some enterprising person (or tourist board) designated a particular house as Juliet's, probably because of the nice Juliet balcony looking over a courtyard, that now contains a bronze statue of the lady herself. Never mind that Juliet wasn't actually real, people flock in there to visit the house, and rub poor Juliet's right breast for luck. They also leave love graffiti on the wall, and as a newly engaged couple, Simon and I might have made a little note on a particular wall to remember our visit! I was disappointed to discover Hollywood lied to us again, as I could find no evidence of any "letters to Juliet" in the walls, as shown in the Amanda Seyfried romantic comedy of the same name.
We also found the main square, which was stunning. So many beautiful buildings of different eras, building materials, colours and states of repair - it probably should have looked disjointed, but it really added to the atmosphere, and it was lovely enough to even minimise the impact of all the tourist stalls and shops. We passed under the huge gate halfway up the square that has a whale's jawbone hanging from it. Local legend is that the bone will fall on the first just person to pass under the gate - looks like that wasn't either of us! We spent some time wandering the streets and lanes and looking at the amazing architecture and houses - on some houses you could see where centuries of frescos, paint and plasterwork had peeled back, revealing the original medieval bricks underneath. By that point it was heating up so we made a gelato stop - having by far the best gelato of the trip to date, chocolate orange flavour, with real pieces of candied orange. So creamy and chocolatey, really good! We ate this overlooking the Adige River, which was running very high and fast due to all the rain and flooding in Austria and northern Italy in previous weeks.
We then headed back to rest and get dressed up for our night at the opera, the main reason for our trip to Verona. First was a celebratory engagement dinner. Although the service was a bit stiff (and I don't think we impressed the sommelier with our request for wine, which basically amounted to "your finest but cheapest") the food was really good - we started with prosciutto and polenta with gorgonzola to share, then Simon had suckling pig and I had beef cheek. It was all very rich food but tasty!
We then went to the opera and were a bit worried Simon's shorts (even though they were his "smart" shorts) would be rejected, as we'd read that sometimes the ushers were strict on the dress code, but needn't have worried, there were plenty of other tourists in sneakers there. We saw La Traviata, and downloaded the libretto beforehand so we knew what was happening, which helped. When I was reading the libretto it sounded a bit like the plot of Moulin Rouge, and a bit of internet research showed that the film was loosely based on this opera - who knew? (Probably people more cultured than me) The singing was wonderful which was lucky as we were so far back that we couldn't see much. I must admit by the end of nearly three hours I was losing focus slightly, but it was a great experience, and the setting in the Roman Arena is magical as the dusk creeps in and stars come out over the stage. All in all a wonderful day in Verona! Next stop, Florence.
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