After a fabulous, relaxing stay on Lake Como it was time again to brave the Italian traffic and drive to our next location - Verona. Besides the first 20km, which was back along the one track road beside the lake, it was supposed to be an easy trip on the autostrada. We ended up making it a bit of an adventure by both believing our GPS when we shouldn't have and listening to it when it was clearly unaware of its surroundings. As a result we had a nice drive around Bergamo before finally joining the perfect slab of asphalt lain down between Milan and Venice known as the autostrada. We had a pretty straight shot from the highway to our hotel in Verona, although there were a few dicey moments when we came to oddly shaped roundabouts. Generally, I'm getting the hang of driving in Italy, but I still get butterflies in my stomach when it gets busy.
Our drive into Verona involved a small journey through an industrial part of the city, never a good idea when you consider the idiom about first impressions has a glimmer of truth about it. Our Best Western hotel was not quite in the Centro Storico, but close enough that we were guaranteed some peace and quiet without a long walk to the attractions. Best Westerns being what they are, we were quickly settled in and on our way into the city.
Our first stop after we passed through the big gates was the old Roman arena. The Veronese are quite proud of this and it is the biggest attraction in town. Unfortunately for them, we had been to both Nimes and Orange, which had better preserved and better presented versions of the same thing. They were setting up for a performance so there was a lot of activity, but even when we looked through that it had lost all its historical and artistic significance. We left unimpressed and quite down on the city.
Luckily it staged a strong comeback, starting with a perfect afternoon weather-wise. It was more of what we got in Lake Como and we were not complaining. With it being perfect gelato weather we treated ourselves to a couple of medio cono, trying to perfect our combinations. We think we've stumbled upon it, with either cioccolato or bacio paired with pistacchio. Delicious.
We walked to another one of the cities attractions, which managed to pick us up out of our anti-Verona mood. The Castelvecchio is a massive old castle situated on the river bank with a museum inside. We were joined inside by a class of artists, sketchpads in hand, who must have had an assignment on geometric design, as they were sketching all sorts of different curves and angles found within the castle. The displays in the museum were a combination of 10th and 11th century frescos and mosaics and later Renaissance art. It was all very well presented throughout the old building. Interspersed were great views of the castle itself and some statues of one of its owners - Cangrande della Scala, which translates to Top Dog. He had a dog's head on the top of his helmet, which is maybe where he got his name.
The top floors of the castle had great views of the river and some of the other Veronese attractions. We spent more time on the upper levels than anywhere else. Eventually we did make our way back down and out of the castle. We had a quick cold drink on one of the local terraces and headed back to our hotel. Dinner was again quick and simple, after which we spent some time walking down the main shopping street, which is paved in marble and carries a lot of high-end fashion boutiques. At one end is Piazza Bra, with the arena, a small park, restaurants and the municipal building, and on the other side was Piazza Erbe with still more shops, an impressive clock tower and a day-time open market. Being very close to the major attraction of Juliet's balcony it was quite busy, even after 8pm. Fiona got some great shots of the piazza before we turned around and went back to the hotel.
Verona had managed to dig itself out of an early hole. While still lagging by Florence as one of our favourite Italian cities it was now pulling ahead of Genoa and we were quite positive about a great day of sight-seeing after a nice rest. Even if it still wasn't the best Italian city we had been to, it was certainly the best-smelling. The whole town smelled of flowers, either roses or some other bloom in the trees. I'm sorry that we don't yet have the technology to record that and translate it as we do with beautiful sights.
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