Verona, art, elegance and pizza

Verona - art and elegance

Three churches, once castle, an amphitheatre and the Lambrirni tower but not a godola anywhere.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Verona.  I new about the Shakespeare connection from Two Gentlemen of Verona and of course Romeo and Juliet which were set in this ancient city.  Our hotel was just outside the medieval city walls which in turn are one boundary of the huge central square.  That made the walking just about bearable.   One side of the square has many restaurants covering  a range of  budgets from self service to really expensive.  It’s elegant.  Even the self service one has white linen table cloths.  We didn’t venture beyond the square for food.  The backdrop of the roman ampitheatre was too brilliant to miss.  Pizza again.  The Venice pizza place has a Pizza Bart Simpson on the menu.  Didn’t have that in Verona though but the pepperoni was great.   

We did manage to find an Aldi.  They had a good deal on fence paint but Q didn’t think it a good idea to take it back with us.  She assures me that the Dundee branch will have the same stock.

Verona has a number of high towers.  I believe that they were a status symbol and the Lombardi one together with the palace is now a museum.  The tower is big but has a lift so that was a good way to begin to explore the city.  Then we came across a wedding as the museum is used as a venue.  Very smartly dressed guests.

We visited the three main churches.  The architecture is of a high standard.  The sytle is gothic but all used timber tie beams to link the sides of the vault.  This neatly avoids the need for flying butresses and would have greatly simplified construction.  Venice used the same system. The quiality of the artwork is simply stunning.  Of particular interest is the quantity and quality of the frescoes.  There is a 3 euro entry fee, free if you are there to pray or worship with a sort of season ticket which allows entry to multiple churches, the same as the Venice system.

Juliet's house, as featured in the film Letter to Juliet has no actual connection to the play but was absolutely mobbed.   We managed a picture of the balcony but didn’t bother braving the crowds to go in to the building.  It is up a close, and the walls are covered with letters to Juliet, despite signs saying it’s no longer permissable to do that.

So Verona is great but not really enough there for a longer visit.  The two days were enough although an opera in the amphitheatre would be quite something.

Off this morning now on the train to Florence.   Very nice train and running nicely to time.  We have an apartment booked in Florence and it looks pretty stunning on the internet.  Lets hope it lives up to the description.

Juliet's balcony