Verona

I'm finally starting my entry on Verona.  Emmons and I went to Verona last weekend.  It was beautiful, but cold.  The weather has started to change here and it is all of a sudden fall, which I am less than thrilled about having been enjoying the nice summery days.

Anyway, the trip to Verona.  Yes.  It went smoothly and we arrived around 1.  We wondered around the city, through a park which looked like an abandoned zoo and into the old center of town, where we found a castle.  We went in and looked around the beautiful courtyard and the bridge over the river.  I took this picture from the bridge, looking out of one of the little windows in the brick.

We then had a gelato and went in search of the hostel, which, as it turns out was very centerally located.  We dropped off some stuff and went in search of the walking tour which, according to my guidebook, leaves every day at 5:30 from piazza Brà.  We waited for a long time and eventually decided that there was no such tour, so we decided to get on the tour train, which gives a 20 min ride around the city.  When we got in the train however, we were told by the conductor that he would be doing no more tours because there wern't enough people (emmons and I were the only ones) and it wasn't worth it to him.  So we had no tour.  We decided to visit what I immagine would be the stopping places of the tour, including the Roman theater and the Casa di Giulietta, which is a museum dedicated to Romeo and Giuliette.  Below are pictures of the theater and the balcony at the Casa di Giulietta. 

At that point it was getting dark, so we decided to search out a place to eat.  We tried a place that my guidebook recommended and which specialized in horse, donkey and rabbit meat.  Emmons, who was more adventurous than I, tried gnocchi with horse meat, I stuck to the veggie sauce.  I did try a bit of Emmons' horse though, which I believe was smoked, then shredded.  I was glad to have not ordered it given that I don't really like smoked meat, but it was otherwise good.  We had a nice long dinner, about 2 hours, and then headed back to the hostel.  Apparently hostels are serious about their lockout times because although we got in just fine (returning at the early hour of 10), two girls who were sharing the dormitory were locked out and we met them in the morning when they came to get thir stuff.

We had breakfast at a lovely little cafe where I decided to buy some coffee.  I asked for coffee for a Moka, because there were four bins behind the counter labeled, "Cafe di Famiglia per Moka"(family coffee for moka) "Miso di Oro" (gold blend) "100% Arabica" and one other I can't remember.  Probably thinking I was a dumb american who didn't know any better, he gave me the gold blend, which was about twice as expensive, but I took it because it smelled great and figured that it had to be fantastic.  That has yet to be determined, but I will keep you all updated as I know you're all on the edge of your seats.

After breakfast, we wondered into the Gardino Giusti.  It is a beautiful garden with a laberinthe and towers that you can climb to get a beautiful view of the city.  Sadly, my camera batteries died and I have no pictures of this, but for those of you who read Emmon's blog, she has some.  After we did the maze, climbed the towers, took assorted pictures and generally took in some fresh morning air, we went in search of the train station.  Which of course was ten times as difficult as it could have been with proper signage.  But we found the train station and got on a train which we were later told by the conductor was the wrong train because we had tickets for the regional train and we got on the intercity plus train (which runs the exact same route).  Luckily, he didn't charge us for a ticket or fine us, but now we know.  I learn something new about public transportation every time I go somewhere here.

That brings us to my arrival at home and the close of this chapter on Verona.  Tune in next time for: Reinventing the Wheel part 24.