Beautiful Verona

Ciao,

So yesterday three of my roomates and I decided to brave the public transportation system of Italia and visit Verona, the city where Juliet, from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, lived. This was the third city outside of Florence that we have visited (Rome the first weekend and Venice for Carnevale). We were all very excited about this and couldn't wait to see the city in the movie "Letters to Juliet". I personally have never seen this movie, so I really didn't know what to expect. We woke up after about 3 hours of sleep and ran to the stazione to catch our train at 6:55am. Needless to say, we were all very exhausted and not looking our best (as you will see in some of the following pictures). The night before we had met three adorable Italian girls who didn't speak much English but were so fun! I think they were just as obsessed with us as we were with them :) Here's a pic if ya wanted to see, which I know you do :)


us and the girls!

When we got off the train in Verona, all we could see was a giant city and it didn't really look like what we were expecting. Luckily, with some much needed help from locals, we made our way to the bus and were on our way to the city center. We got off at the amphitheatre, or Verona's Arena, which is Italy's third largest arena after the Colluseum. Here, in Piazza Bra, is where gladiators of the day fought and thousands of spectators watched. It is weird for me to think of how this building was the same structure but such a different scene back in 30 or so AD.



Verona's Arena, very similar to the Colluseum

From here we walked through the shopping center of Verona, which looked alot like the streets of Venice. Luckily, it was alot warmer than when we were at Carnevale and we could really enjoy the beauty of Verona. The city was extremely calm and just very picturesque. We stopped at a caffe to get some snakcs before dinner, then stopped at another practically next door to get a second helping (normal.) I had a chocolate croissant at the first and had some sort of spinach ricotta pastry at the second, which had all sorts of homemade goodies.



Don't they just look delicious



From here we walked through Piazza dei Signori, a major piazza in the city, where there was a market selling food and souveniers. Juliet's house was right near here, so we made our way through the crowds to see her balcony and touch the breast of her statue for good luck. The house was not what I expected at at- I had a picture in my head of a large villa where Romeo stood on the grass below to call upon Juliet. The house was on a main street, probably because of the tourism, and the blacony was very small and below was a cobblestoned walkway. I'm sure time has changed this spot for the most part, I was just surprised. I am also still not positive if this story was true or just a play made up by the imagination of Shakespeare. Either way, Juliet's family was known to live in this house and it was pretty awesome to get to see it.



Juliet's balcony...p.s. not Juliet on the balcony

 The best part of Juliet's home was the graffitti on the walls and the love locks. Everyone there was just so in love and the walls were dedicated for couples to express their love...it was just too cute. Also, there was a whole section of the area for couples to write their names on locks and "lock their love". One man even climbed up tot he top fo a gate to put his lock on the very top, so romantic. It was so cute I just had to buy a lock for myself (Dereck get ready to be romantic!).

us by the graffiiti walls



man climbing to the top...his love aint unlockin



After Juliet's house, we walked around the city for a bit, taking in the sights and forcing Kelly to take pictures of us because all of our cameras had died. The whole day was sunny and warm and we stood by the bridge and watched people go by and a band play in the street.

We went to lunch (not worth describing) and drank some nice red wine. Then we proceeded to the McDonald's in the train station where we all feel asleep on the table. Acceptable? Probably not. When we awoke we headed to the train where we slept some more and were given more food. Oh, how I love first class :)

Finally, we were back at home in Firenze! Finding a way back to our apartment from the random train station we were dropped off was an adventure in itself. We waited for the bus to come and were completely confused when it passed right by the bus stop. Apparently, you have to wave down buses in Italy...weird I know. So we wait and try waving down a taxi, which does not work. Double fail. Finally, we grab a taxi as someone is getting dropped off and get a ride to our home near the Ponte Vecchio :) Home sweet home.

Now, off to grab some gelato! :)