Verona

Verona is a World Heritage Site and it is a beautiful place.  Not surprisingly, it is also awash with tourists.  I have shown you another World Heritage site we visited in Scotland.

I thought a lot about my Uncle Pat's comment that because of this blog he got to see the world from the comfort of his computer chair; particularly whilst carrying my 22 pound backpack the half mile from the train station to the tourist information on the Piazza Bra only to be told their accommodations desk was closed that day and we should consult the information office back at the train station, which we'd looked for but couldn't find.  Upon returning, it was easy to find entering the station, but completely obscured when coming the other way.  We doubled (trebled?) back yet again to end up at the Hotel SanMicheli, which I mainly liked because it was named after me ;-)

Though we were located nearer the Piazza Bra, with the Roman amphitheatre that Napoleon re-built he felt so bad about knocking it down, I didn't see anyone but tourists there, and heard nothing but American English spoken.  So we went the other direction and tended to hang out in Piazza Erbe. 

Mind it was also chock full of tourists but at least I couldn't understand much of what they were saying, so that was OK.  

I don't quite feel as though I'm on holiday if I'm still hearing English.

We went to Piazza Erbe to eat, drink and buy food at the market,

but mainly we went to watch people.  

We didn't do much research in advance of this trip.  The book from the library on Italy was far too heavy to carry and frankly between tax preparation, changing property managers in Oklahoma City, writing blog posts for two weeks in advance and planning out the packing strategy, I didn't have much energy left for research.  So, we just showed up, looked around and investigated what interested us from amongst the tourist office recommendations.

One day for lunch we bought fruit and took it (along with the tea-towel and water bottle I'd packed) to Garibaldi Park for lunch.  There was a nice statue of Guiseppe on horseback.  

Bill kept referring to Garibaldi as 'that bloke from down the street' as there is a plaque on one of the buildings in a village near us commemorating his stay there.  Garibaldi is credited with making possible the unification of Italy.  I was pleased to see public drinking fountains all over Italy, starting with this park; unfortunately, the design was such that one needed to have a vessel to capture the water, else get soaked.

We walked around the grounds of Castelvecchio, with its strange almost 

floral style of crenellation on bridge and tower.  This structure dates back to the 14th Century.   

We walked for hours up and down the riverside, photographing the river, the bridges, 

the apartments overlooking the river...everything. 

We went up Lamberti Tower (in the elevator/lift) and took pictures, of the roof tops, the roof gardens, the colourful buildings, the piazza with ant-sized people scurrying around.  

Then back to join the ants, get a drink and sit for a while.  Behind us, Bill noticed a customer entering a jewelery store; the jeweler closed and locked the door, which we found interesting and could place all sorts of connotations on that practice.  "You are such an important customer, we want no other distractions while we serve you." or "We are going to look at jewels of such great value, we need added security." or 

 

 

"We're ensuring you'll not be getting out of this store with the jewels until you've paid." or "You'll not be leaving without making a purchase".  

We didn't try to test any of our theories, mind...