Three days in Verona

11 to 13 June 2017

Verona - North Italy.
My husband has been visiting this town for the past 14 years and this is my first time.

Since my husband was to drop me off and go away (on business), I was not exactly in a great mood and it affected my 'first impression'. And he was not to stay 'in the city' with me, but nearer to his client's place in the suburbs. :(

We had taken the train from Venice that Sunday morning. After we waited and waited and waited for the bus to the city, we ended up taking a taxi!

We left both our bags at my place - B&B Residenza Ermanni. The owner - Mrs.Raffaella Ermanni, is a very very nice lady. And the room was so neat.

We walked around a bit before we decided to head back to my room to change his shoes to comfortable Luna sandals. I cannot recommend these sandals enough. Worth every ruppee. You will never regret buying it.

But only after reaching back did we realise that I did not know to open the front door of the B&B and worse, our key got stuck. And the neighbour who walked in did not even stop to see what was happening. So unlike India. If this happened in India, the whole apartment complex would come forth to help and offer suggestions / tea/ chair and maybe even a screw driver to pry open the door!! How different. I love my India.

Anyway, the key came out (I think because I offered a prayer, but my husband thinks his muscle!) and we joined my husband's supplier, wife and daughter for a lovely meal at Piazza Bra at Cangrande Ristorante & enoteca.

Large head at Piazza Bra near the Arena. July - August are opera months in Verona

 My camera has not captured the different colours of the Pizza bases well. Red, green and normal!

A light snack before lunch! Pizza with potato and artichokes.

Pizza with nutella!!

 Original Italian lunch, always has wine! @ cangrande ristorante & enoteca

I think this is the picture of Gnocchi. Not sure though. Or was it my friend's dish? Anyway, Gnocchi was yummy.

After lunch, we went to Savoia, estd:1939 for their gelato.

Fortified with food we walked through the marbled 'via Giuseppe Mazzini' towards Piazza Erbe. It is the only footpath which is marbled and not having cobblestones. This street is also the 'posh' street of Verona with all brands of repute having a store here.

We walked into a leather store (Fratelli?) and there was a sales woman there sporting an 'OM' tattoo with Gayatri mantra. Her son was in Nepal when the earthquake occurred this year and this was her way of thanking the Gods! Her son also has the same Tattoo, she said.

Piazza Erbe has 3 important things which need to be seen.

First, look at the photo below. This is not a place for handcuffing and torturing people. This was actually the heart of Verona’s commerce. People used to get on top of the pavilion and try to sell their merchandise. In order to prove that their logs of wood were the standard width they used to slip them through a metal cuff which was of government approved measurement. The same thing was done with bricks and roof tiles that had to fit the dimensions of the geometrical forms.

 A Whale bone hangs over the entrance to Piazza Signori. Legend says that the whale rib will fall down when the first person who has never told a lie walks under it. Well, it did not fall on me. :P

The most ancient monument in the square is the Fountain,  and it has a statue -"Madonna Verona". It is a Roman statue. The head and the arm of the Madonna statue were missing and were added later, when the fountain was built around it.

After loitering around and trying to find Juliet's house unsuccessfully, we sat down for talking. In the evening, I rushed back to 'learn' to open the front door (of the B&B) from Rafaella and got dressed for dinner.

Dinner was near Ponte Pietra. What a beautiful view!

Dinner was...............excellent. The restaurant, the company and the conversation. Amazing! Restaurant Antica Torretta will be a good memory.

One thing about being a vegetarian abroad is that the choices are limited and the choices might get enlarged (by addition of 1 or 2 more dishes!)  if you eat egg. I was sort of forced to have an egg starter. But no regrets.

Egg cooked at low temperature served with pearls of black truffle and zucchini cream in a crispy pasta kataifi.

Spaghetti  (home-made pasta) with fresh tomato, basil and stracciatella di bufala.

Tiramisù with cream of chocolate & the spoon is edible

Then I went back alone to my room, while my husband went to his suburbian residence. :(

Next day dawned and I had sort of planned with Suman (supplier's wife), that 'maybe' we can go to Padua Church, since it was the holy feast time. But we did not. We walked around Verona and shopped for her daughter who was to start studying Hotel Management in Switzerland this August.

First we went to see the Arena. This is is a Roman amphitheatre and some say it predates the Rome Colloseum. It is still in use and many operas are performed here.

The opening scene of the Hindi movie - Rockstar was shot here.

From here through the shopping paradise (marbled via Giuseppe Mazzini), we went to see the Tower of Lamberti. We paid to go up and the view of Verona...amazing.

This is situated in Piazza Erbe. And when you enter the square if you go past the whale bone, there is Dante's square. This was the centre of power of Verona. The buildings here belonged to the former city government of Verona. They have a unique Venetian Renaissance style : 8 arches & 4 columned double windows topped by 5 statues.

And that is Dante in the middle - hand to chin.

See this man standing with a ball in hand?

Apparently, the ball will fall out of the man's hand only when the first sane inhabitant of Verona walks under it! And it still hasn't fallen. Says a lot about Veronese people!! :D

Further down are the Scaligere Tombs. Highly ornamental Tomb - structures rising high above the ground, with a sarcophagus, topped by a statue of the deceased. The Scaliger were the Lords of Verona.

I was envisaging something and this was a wet squib. There are some 8 high rise tombs. We were not allowed inside as it was a Monday (a holiday).

What we got to see was only one tomb through the grills. It was small but with intricate work. I had to wade through many tourists to get a view. 

The church near the tombs, was quiet and worth a silent prayer. 

Remember we had lunch the first day at a Restaurant Cangrande? It is named after one Scaliger. His tomb is also there - inside. I did not see it.

We walked back and decided it was time to shop. I did not buy anything as I converted Euros into Indian Rupees; meaning multiplied the printed cost by 70!

Lunch was at a fancy place - Restaurante Rubiani, michelin star!

We decided to head back to our room for a siesta. The sleep after the sight seeing and heavy lunch was lovely. Then guess what? It was time for Dinner!! :D 

And my husband was coming back to Verona! Yippee.

We all (hubby, his clients, supplier and the ladies) met at Piazza Bra and walked for a drink to Piazza Erbe. Look how the market has changed.

Then we walked towards Castel Vecchio to our restaurant - Trattoria I Masenini.

The best Stuffed Zucchini flowers and Asparagus Risotto.

We saw this young girl doing full splits!! Amazing.

Yup. Pomodoro (Tomato) road

Stuffed Zucchini flowers.

Asparagus Risotto

Post dessert they asked us if we wanted Grappa. Alcohol content - 35% to 60%. I 'tasted' it and by the time it touched my lip, it evaporated!!

Then it was time to say Bye Bye to husband... We would meet next on Friday night.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

What was I to do today? I was all alone. No husband around.
I will write love letters....Not to my partner, but random people!
:D

Verona is the setting of Shakespeare's famous love story - Romeo & Juliet. Even though they are fictional characters, there is a 'Casa di Giulietta' / 'House of Juliet' in Verona. The famous balcony is also here! There is an statue of Juliet here and supposedly if you rub the right breast of this statue, you will find your true love!
I had found my 'true love' and was NOT going to rub any breasts.

I had read online that there was a 'Club of Juliet' which replies to the letters addressed to Juliet. Have you seen the movie - Letters to Juliet?

I wanted to reply to letters addressed to Juliet. So I had gotten in touch with the people in Juliet's club. And they allowed me access to these letters. I could reply to them as Juliet!

The Juliet Club is situated on the other end of Piazza Erbe and not in the Casa.
When I went in, they handed over to me some letters, a pen, and the club's stationary.
I had to reply as Juliet; not as myself.

I understand love. I have been married to the same man for 20 + years and have been through many ups and downs in life with him. Our love is strong and has withstood many tests. And we still continue to love each other. Love is beautiful.

So was replying easy?
No, not easy. As I did not understand the type of 'love' mentioned in the letters. I will not call the feelings expressed in those letters as 'love'. As much as I believe that there is 'love at first sight', it takes mature individuals to 'be in love'. For many, at first sight, they see a person physically. Love blooms 'slowly' from more than just this physical attraction. That is my opinion.
Frankly, it was hard for me as a mother of 2 teenagers to understand how love can happen so fast and end so fast for frivolous reasons!

What I could not really understand was how my 'colleagues' were able to reply to these letters? They were 16 -17 year old girls! What experience does a 16 year old have?

I had to find out.
These were girls are from the local school. Three were not sure what they wanted to do after their school life ended, while one wanted to become a doctor. Mails to the club come in from all parts of the world - in different languages. They used the club to 'enhance' their language skills. When I questioned them about their 'love experience', they said that they replied only to mail they could 'connect' to. Like a letter from another 16 year old from Spain or England or USA.

These girls are using these letters for their language enhancement!! That made sense. But making them give advice to another person....I am not so sure it is the right thing.

Anyway, I have not put pen to paper in a really long time. I type on my computer, but not write. Here I had to write each reply. No computers to type out, no Word document to check spellings and edit.

I replied to 11 letters in 6 hours. Not a great number, but I had to be calm (after reading those mails, trust me, you know a tight slap will solve the problem!), think clearly like Juliet and then write. Remember, there is no 'cut and paste' option. I really had to formulate the reply in my head before putting the pen to paper. My colleagues, those young girls were laughing, playing and replying.

From here, I walked all the way up to get another amazing view of  Verona. It was a hard climb up the steep stairs to Castel San Pietro.

Then I walked back into town towards Castel Vecchio. I could not find the entrance to the museum and thus did not do much actually! The celebrated statue of Cangrande I Della Scala on the horse is here.

It is huge fortress with thick walls and moat and many turrets.

Love locks with no keys!

Verona ended abruptly for me. There was nothing more to do here. And being alone takes some getting used to.

So, the rest of the day was a bore. I went back to the room to pack, had dinner at a nearby pizzeria and went to bed.

The train to Bologna, the next day, was early anyway.

Basically, Verona for me is a place you can spend probably 1 - 1/2 days at a leisurely pace. Next time, I would probably include Padua and Lake Garde in my trip.

After Bologna, I went to Parma alone before coming back to Verona to rejoin with my husband. Then we both went to London. After this we flew to Alicante, Spain to attend a marriage in Elche. We celebrated our anniversary in Barcelona before flying back home.