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Mark & Robyn's Travels
"In fair Verona, where we lay our scene..... A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life." Whoa hold on there let's not get carried away.
Today we are off on the 6:50 am flight British Air flight from London to Verona. I am glad we checked our bags the night before, at 5:30 am Gatwick is a madhouse. The flight was fine and we were sure glad to leave the rain behind us and land in Verona where it is.......raining of course. The rain seems to be following us wherever we go, so if Florence needs rain wait until Wednesday we will be bringing it along. We are staying at a little boutique hotel in the middle of the old part of the city called the Alberto Mazzanti. It is comfortable and not very expensive, probably one of the least expensive of all our stays in Europe so far.
Although I did study a lot of European history, Italian history is my weakest. I know Roman history very well but beyond that I am a bit sketchy. I say this because any historical facts I state will come directly from Wikipedia, I will keep the history more to small tidbits unless I happen to know something. So here goes with my tidbits about Verona. The area was possibly settled as early as 500 bc, the town of Verona became a Roman colonia in 89 bc, as such there is some Roman architecture still visible. The most prominent is the third largest Roman Coliseum still standing, it was built in 39 bc and is still used today for opera's or other concerts. Adele is playing a concert there tonight, last night we were told that 15,000 people were inside and 10,000 outside during her concert.
After the Romans were conquered, because of it's location on the Adige river and several cross-roads, it became and influential trading center. In the 15th century it became part of the Venetian empire and in the 17th century it became part of the Austrian empire.
Our hotel is located near the primary market plaza called Piazza Erbe. The city is fairly easy to walk since it is fairly flat and everything we need to see is close by.
When we got here it was early so we left the bags at the hotel and walked around the city. Robyn wanted to se the Juliette house where there is a Juliette balcony and a statue of Juliette in a courtyard of the house. The house was the home of a wealthy Verona merchant family which supposedly is who Shakespeare based the Capulet family on, don't know for certain so we will let that fact go. There were hundreds of people trying to get in the courtyard, I call them idiots and morons. You stupid people, this was not real, there was no Juliette stop acting like it is from the story. Everybody thinks I hate people, no it is not true, I only hate stupid people, unfortunately almost all people are stupid. Anyway we didn't waste out time trying to get a picture of the balcony and strolled on down to where the coliseum is located. It was lunch we selected a nice café with a cover and sat down, then it started raining and raining. It was really funny these guys showed all of sudden showed up selling umbrella's and poncho's, they came out of nowhere. We just took our time enjoying our lunch.
After lunch we walked over to the castle, every one of these old towns in Europe has a castle. Of course the whole time we walked over there we got rained on, Robyn made me buy two poncho's, I refused to wear mine as I had an umbrella. The castle hear was more a seat of government than a defensive castle, it is now a museum. It was interesting but nothing fantastic. It did give a good view of the river.
After we left the castle we checked into the hotel and then rested a bit, we are old, we both fell asleep for about an hour. Robyn wanted to go up in the Torre Dei Lamberti which is a tower near our hotel and provides the best views of Verona. When we got over there a men's choir was singing in a portico and it was absolutely beautiful. One of my great joys at church is singing in the men's chorus, it may be one of the few reasons I continue attending. We went up in the tower and fortunately there was an elevator, when we got to the top of the elevator there was still another 40 stairs to climb. There was a middle-aged over-weight woman who was obviously talked into taking the stairs from the ground level by her husband as we walked by her I thought she was about to go into cardiac. I thought I was going to have to use my Boy Scout Leader CPR training, not really I would have stood there and showed her husband how to do it (maybe - stupid people). The views from the top were quite spectacular. We could see the coliseum and the stage for Adele, along with the Italian Alps.
After the excitement of the tower Robyn wanted to visit one of the cathedrals. As I have said before seen one Catholic cathedral and you have seen them all. We went to the Santa Anastasia cathedral. This particular cathedral was built between 1290 and 1410. It is beautiful inside but not ornate, certainly not nearly ornate as the French cathedrals we have visited. In this one I felt the builders were trying to connect the common man to his religion instead of trying to scare the **** out of them.
After we left the cathedral we headed over to the Pointe Pietra, this is the oldest bridge in Verona and connected the two sides of the town. On the opposite side was the remains of a Roman theater that is still used for shows today. We took our first selfie of the trip with the bridge in the background.
Tomorrow will be an interesting day, we are taking a half-day cooking class.
Today we are off on the 6:50 am flight British Air flight from London to Verona. I am glad we checked our bags the night before, at 5:30 am Gatwick is a madhouse. The flight was fine and we were sure glad to leave the rain behind us and land in Verona where it is.......raining of course. The rain seems to be following us wherever we go, so if Florence needs rain wait until Wednesday we will be bringing it along. We are staying at a little boutique hotel in the middle of the old part of the city called the Alberto Mazzanti. It is comfortable and not very expensive, probably one of the least expensive of all our stays in Europe so far.
Although I did study a lot of European history, Italian history is my weakest. I know Roman history very well but beyond that I am a bit sketchy. I say this because any historical facts I state will come directly from Wikipedia, I will keep the history more to small tidbits unless I happen to know something. So here goes with my tidbits about Verona. The area was possibly settled as early as 500 bc, the town of Verona became a Roman colonia in 89 bc, as such there is some Roman architecture still visible. The most prominent is the third largest Roman Coliseum still standing, it was built in 39 bc and is still used today for opera's or other concerts. Adele is playing a concert there tonight, last night we were told that 15,000 people were inside and 10,000 outside during her concert.
After the Romans were conquered, because of it's location on the Adige river and several cross-roads, it became and influential trading center. In the 15th century it became part of the Venetian empire and in the 17th century it became part of the Austrian empire.
Our hotel is located near the primary market plaza called Piazza Erbe. The city is fairly easy to walk since it is fairly flat and everything we need to see is close by.
When we got here it was early so we left the bags at the hotel and walked around the city. Robyn wanted to se the Juliette house where there is a Juliette balcony and a statue of Juliette in a courtyard of the house. The house was the home of a wealthy Verona merchant family which supposedly is who Shakespeare based the Capulet family on, don't know for certain so we will let that fact go. There were hundreds of people trying to get in the courtyard, I call them idiots and morons. You stupid people, this was not real, there was no Juliette stop acting like it is from the story. Everybody thinks I hate people, no it is not true, I only hate stupid people, unfortunately almost all people are stupid. Anyway we didn't waste out time trying to get a picture of the balcony and strolled on down to where the coliseum is located. It was lunch we selected a nice café with a cover and sat down, then it started raining and raining. It was really funny these guys showed all of sudden showed up selling umbrella's and poncho's, they came out of nowhere. We just took our time enjoying our lunch.
After lunch we walked over to the castle, every one of these old towns in Europe has a castle. Of course the whole time we walked over there we got rained on, Robyn made me buy two poncho's, I refused to wear mine as I had an umbrella. The castle hear was more a seat of government than a defensive castle, it is now a museum. It was interesting but nothing fantastic. It did give a good view of the river.
After we left the castle we checked into the hotel and then rested a bit, we are old, we both fell asleep for about an hour. Robyn wanted to go up in the Torre Dei Lamberti which is a tower near our hotel and provides the best views of Verona. When we got over there a men's choir was singing in a portico and it was absolutely beautiful. One of my great joys at church is singing in the men's chorus, it may be one of the few reasons I continue attending. We went up in the tower and fortunately there was an elevator, when we got to the top of the elevator there was still another 40 stairs to climb. There was a middle-aged over-weight woman who was obviously talked into taking the stairs from the ground level by her husband as we walked by her I thought she was about to go into cardiac. I thought I was going to have to use my Boy Scout Leader CPR training, not really I would have stood there and showed her husband how to do it (maybe - stupid people). The views from the top were quite spectacular. We could see the coliseum and the stage for Adele, along with the Italian Alps.
After the excitement of the tower Robyn wanted to visit one of the cathedrals. As I have said before seen one Catholic cathedral and you have seen them all. We went to the Santa Anastasia cathedral. This particular cathedral was built between 1290 and 1410. It is beautiful inside but not ornate, certainly not nearly ornate as the French cathedrals we have visited. In this one I felt the builders were trying to connect the common man to his religion instead of trying to scare the **** out of them.
After we left the cathedral we headed over to the Pointe Pietra, this is the oldest bridge in Verona and connected the two sides of the town. On the opposite side was the remains of a Roman theater that is still used for shows today. We took our first selfie of the trip with the bridge in the background.
Tomorrow will be an interesting day, we are taking a half-day cooking class.
- comments
Debby So I see you have found Robyn. Looks like a beautiful city. Where's the picture of the balcony. I wanted to see a picture of you guys in your ponchos. Melanie and I have poncho pictures from our trip in Switzerland walking up a very steep hill to Heidi House. They only sold children's ponchos so we are wearing really small colorful ponchos in the pouring rain. I look like the female version of F.I.T.
mark_robyn I didn't find Robyn she found me. The balcony pictures are coming in the next post. Yes there will be no poncho's, I have yet to wear mine and Robyn always has the camera.