Verona, Italy 6/9.20/24

 Verona, Italy

After a 2-hour train ride to Verona, we checked into our hotel, and then headed out for a bit to eat before we met our evening tour.  We thought it would be interesting to get a perspective of nighttime, and then daytime tomorrow.  It was a 2-hour walking tour which was a great way to end our day.  

The top picture is the coliseum of Verona, which we were told was older than the one in Rome, and in much better condition.  It was also quite a bit smaller.  Kind of a mini me...

Our tour started at 6:30 pm, so we got to see the buildings lit at night and also as the sun was setting.  Bologna (for the short time we were there) was more of a city feeling with some history added in, Verona was more of a small town feeling with so much history and preserved buildings.  Really could spend more time here.

This is the Adive River and has two main bridges that cross it.  The Ponte Della Vittoria and the Ponte Pietra Bridges.  The Ponte Pietra connects the fortress that was built to protect the royal family.  A lot of Roman influence here, the center picture in the collage is a Roman gate that was relocated to the current spot.

The Ponte dell Vittorio is to commemorate their victory in 1918.

Smallest jewelry store in Italy - it is just a small window display.  The carvings of medusa and carving on the other side of the lintel are from the renaissance period.   The bottom left fossils are embedded in the cobblestone walkways all over the city.  

Sights from our walk around the city.  The famous Well of Love is about another tragic love story between Corrado di San Bonifacio and Isabella Donati in the 1500's, about a century after the more famous love story of Romeo and Juliet.  She came from a wealthy family, and he was poor soldier. Here, Isabella threw herself down the well after she asked her lover to retrieve something from the well to prove his love of her and not her money and he drowned in the attempt.  

The next morning, we had breakfast in our little suite, and it was amazing. 

 Verona was the setting of Romeo and Juliet, and we stopped by the House of Juliet to get some pictures of the famous balcony.  We had heard that the crowds got very large later in the day, and so we went early.  

Romeo's balcony on the left, Juliet's on the right.

On to the main square to meet our guide for a 4-hour walking tour of the city.  While we repeated some of the stops from our night tour, this was more in-depth and took us to different points in the city. 

First stop, The Coliseum.  Night tour we saw the outside, day tour we went inside.  Mickey climbed to the top, of course.  Seems to be a pattern on this incredible journey. As I said earlier, a smaller and better-preserved version of the one in Rome, and supposedly the older one.

Street art as we walked the city.

Neighborhoods pure Italy.

The frescos in the city are remarkably well preserved and beautiful.

We took the funicular up to San Pietro Hill for some great views of the city. They are considering reopening the cable cars to get up the hill also.   The church was not open for us to see inside unfortunately. Walking down the hill to the Ponte Pietra, we passed some beautiful villas - a very expensive place to live.  Mickey and I both felt we would fit right in if our budgets could afford it.  

This is the Porte de Basari, the gate built by the Romans to enter the city.  It was under renovation so all we saw was the cover over it - the right had side is what it looked like before it needed cleaning and repairs. 

This is the main market square and Dante's square.  The market is said to be the oldest in Europe and is open year-round.  

The Scaligare Family tombs and museum.  Once the leading family of Verona, they were not of royal lineage, but were from the merchant class and the populace voted them in power as the royal leaders were not doing such a great job. They ruled for 125 years. Their early tombs were not very fancy, so the heads of the house decided to design their own, and each one got more elaborate than the previous ones.

After our tour, we returned to Dante's square and had lunch and some great wine before heading back to our hotel, and on to the train station heading to Trieste.

A lovely city and one we would like to come back to...a train ride to Trieste where we will pick up the ship tomorrow.  We booked a Doubletree, and this is what we got in Trieste....Fabulous!