In Sunny Verona!

Monday, 11 March, 2013

Ciao or Guten Tag!

Take your pick.  This area is the semi-autonomous region of the South Tyrol and it still retains much of its Austrian cultural heritage that is left over from when the territory was transferred from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Italy following WW I.  You are more likely to do business in German than in Italian! 

Woke up to another beautiful morning here in Bolzano.  Greatly pleased, as rain had been predicted for our entire time here – so glad the weatherman was wrong!  (Although to be honest, we’re heading for another cold spell in Munich, as well as in Paris.  I’m hoping that temperatures will stay above freezing until we turn in the car in Innsbruck tomorrow!  Then it can freeze!)  Went down for breakfast about 8, and good as the day before!  Cheese, ham, salami, pastries and cakes – these Italians definitely know how to put a breakfast together!

In the Brenner Pass

In the Brenner Pass

Then we decided to take a drive to Verona, which is actually less than an hour and a half away!  We’ve been to Verona before – we’ve stayed there twice, in the summer, when we’ve been to the Arena di Verona for opera – Aida for my 50^th birthday, and Carmen for my 55^th!  Wound down the mountains and into town.  Found lots of parking at the Arena parking structure, so left the car and headed into the city center. 

In the Brenner Pass

Verona is truly lovely.  Anyone who has watched Inspector Morse’s Death of the Self or the wonderful movie Letters to Juliet will have seen much of the real Verona.  We came first to the main piazza in the town, which surrounds the Roman amphitheatre.  It looked like they were actually either putting up or taking down seats for an ongoing entertainment and, from what we could see from local flyers, they may be using the arena all year round now, as opposed to just in the summer.  (Although Robert doesn’t think that any opera singer worth his or her salt would agree to sing outside here in February or March, so maybe something else was going on!)   

Verona

Margaret & the Arena di Verona

Arena di Verona

Juliet's Balcony

Love Locks in the courtyard

A courtyard in Verona

From the arena, we walked down the street leading to Juliette’s house.  Talk about a mob scene!  The courtyard was open, and must have been jammed with hundreds of Japanese tourists, all wanting to take the exact same pictures!  It was wild!  The entranceway to the courtyard was actually in the process of being repainted – and there was signage saying that if one wanted to leave a letter, they should use the basket inside the house in the library, or the walls on the entranceway.  Not sure how that would work, and we did not want to wait in line to take the “inside” tour – as after all, we all know that Juliette was William Shakespeare’s invention – as is her house! 

Piazza delle Erbe

Piazza delle Erbe

Lion of St Mark - Piazza delle Erbe

From here we walked to Piazza delle Erbe, where we’ve eaten several times.  The sun was actually shining, and it was about here that we decided that we could actually do without wearing our heavy coats!  It was actually pleasant outside!  Quelle surprise!  

In the Morse story, Morse and Lewis had stayed at a luxury hotel – it is the Due Torre (two towers) and we found it to stay in on our first opera visit. [Lovely place, but as in many places in Europe, the air conditioning was more like a swamp cooler (more swamp than cooler – RJB) – smell and all! – and didn’t do much if anything about providing relief on a scalding hot August day, as we recall…]  Decided to walk past the Due Torre again, and found it with no problem – although I am still amazed that I was ever able to get the car down those small alleyways and out again when it was time to go!  

In looking at the map, we decided to head across the River Adige behind the hotel, and see the Roman Theatre on the other side.  Walked over a very, very old pedestrian bridge (the Ponte Pietra – Italian for Stone  Bridge – a Roman arch bridge built in 100 B.C.), and came out near the Theatre.  Unfortunately, being a Monday morning, things were still shut up tight – waiting for later in the afternoon to open.  (More Robert comments here about why the Italian economy is in the shape it is…)

Roman Theater

Ponte Pietra - A Roman bridge

So, nice walk back across another bridge, and back to the arena to grab some lunch.  Found a nice spot in one of the outdoor restaurants – fabulous view of the arena, which is always a good thing!  We both ordered bresaola salads with arugula and parmesan cheese – YUM!  My very favorite Italian lunch!  All washed down with a couple of bottles of sparkling water.  Then, a short detour for some gelato – chocolate and stracciatella (chocolate and vanilla) and we were ready to head back to Bolzano!

On the Ponte Pietra

Forte Sofia

Roman Theater

Bresaola salad for lunch

Gelato for dessert

Easy getting away and out of town and back up into the mountains.  The Autoroute signage was great, and we soon found ourselves back in lovely Bolzano!  Still a beautiful later afternoon; down for naps for a bit.  Not sure what we’re doing this evening, as we did have a good lunch – and most unfortunately, our lovely restaurant at the hotel is closed tonight!  Bummer!  Still, have to get organized to get away in the morning (after another good breakfast!).  Tomorrow we head back to Innsbruck, and turn in the car.  Then find our way to the train station for a train to Munich.  So!  More later!

m

xxx