Buoyed a little by a strong finish to the day before we were quickly out on the street again the next morning. We did this in part to make sure we could get in a full day of sight-seeing, but also to avoid the masses of tourists that we saw in Piazza Bra the day before. Although we're not into the full swing of high season yet, it sure seems like the numbers are up over what we'e experienced in the past. We're also seeing a lot more Australians. It's weird, they seem to be everywhere.
Our first stop showed the wisdom of our early start. We had the piazza in front of the Basilica San Zeno all to ourselves, which allowed Fiona to bring out her inner Scammell and get in a few photos without any actual people in them. Her father would be proud! The Basilica was beautiful and interesting. You can clearly see the workmanship that went into buildings, but it was the quirkiness that really appealed to me. The porch around the front door had some great carving, with panels showing biblical scenes along with knights jousting and an old fashioned hunt. How those apply to a Basilica, I'm not quite sure.
The inside had a few school groups inside, but was otherwise relatively empty. The roof was very high and there were fabulous frescos on almost every wall - although some of them had 14th century graffiti etched into them. Apparently the desire to write your name on something important has always existed. We wandered through the beautifully decorated church for some time, spending perhaps a half hour marvelling at the amazing bronze doors, made up of dozens of panels showing scenes from the Old and New Testaments. The artistry was unbelievable.
San Zeno was an interesting character. He showed up in Verona in the 5th century from North Africa and converted the entire town to Christianity. His sermons were first held in the old Roman amphitheatre and he constantly had to rebuild his churches to accommodate his ever increasing flock.
After the Basilica we walked along the river and through the Piazza Erbe to the old Roman amphitheatre. Although a lot of it was built over, it was still largely recognisable as an amphitheatre and also had a great archaeological museum attached. We walked through and greatly enjoyed the old mosaics and the collection of figurines, pottery and glass found on the site. The highlight, though, was probably the view over the city, which Fiona captured quite well in a series of shots. After the amphitheatre we were ready for lunch and we settled for a standard pizza in one of the piazzas.
At this point the heat of the day was starting to take its toll and we were fading quickly. We contemplated calling it a day and heading back to the hotel, but stuck it out for a couple more churches. The first was the Duomo, which was an fabulous mix of marble and frescos, probably the most frescoed church we had seen. It was also pleasantly cool, which meant we extended ours stay and explored every corner. Our last stop, before gelato of course, was another church, this the one dedicated to St. Anastasia. Looking from the outside we almost walked away, as it was quite plain and a little boring, but it absolutely exploded with colour and life when you walked in the door. The roof was alive with colour and all the alcoves contained significant historical characters. It was a wonderful finale.
Lest we be accused of excluding Verona's most talked about landmark - Juliet's balcony - we stopped by and were delighted to find it contained a tenth of the crowd we saw there in the morning. While the balcony has no historical significance - there were no actual Capulets, and the balcony itself was built a couple of hundred years after the play was written - every goes there and we are loath to be left out. I did not stoop, however, to rubbing the right breast of the statue of Juliet for luck. A few people in the crowd seemed to get a little too much enjoyment out of that.
A quick nap at the hotel had us back on the street at 7:30, ready for a nice dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hotel. We had an absolutely great time, tucked away in one of Verona's back alleys at a place called Greppia, enjoying authentic Italian cuisine and !shock! two bottles of a ridiculously good Valpolicella. It was a long dinner, so don't judge us too harshly. We had a cute table next to us with two older, local couples. It's weird how much these little old Italian ladies can eat. But we had no complaints and could easily see why every plate delivered to the terrace was returned completely empty.
So after an amazingly weak start, we had a fabulously strong finish to our stay in Verona. On the whole we would definitely recommend it to anyone going through Italy.
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