The City of Verona

On Friday morning I left for the city of Verona.  I took two trains, and finally made it to my hotel around 4:30 in the afternoon.  The tricky things about trains in Italy is that sometimes they run late, which means you could miss your connecting train, and it takes forever to get to wherever you are going with all the stops.  I was able to settle into the Hotel Colombo d'Ora with no problem.  I asked for a map of the place, and then I decided to take a little walk around to see what was happening and do some shopping.

After walking around and checking out the shops, I was ready to call it a night.  I headed back to the hotel watched some TV, updated pictures, and chatted with the family via Skype.  I got a great night's sleep, and I had a good breakfast that set me up for a nice day in Verona.

I mapped out my assault on the city of Verona.  I had a sense of where I wanted to go, and what I wanted to see.  I decided I was going to walk along the river that weaved through the center of Verona.   My first stop was Castelvecchio con il Ponte Scaligero.  From there I was looking for the Arco de Gavi.  I had the hardest time finding it.  After walking in circles for about ten minutes I realized the Arch was being excavated (as are half of the churches in Italy).  I continued on to Chiesa di S. Lorenzo, and then I walked along the river.  There was a really nice breeze, so it wasn't too hot yet.

Castelvecchio

Courtyard of Castelvecchio 

Clock Tower of Castelvecchio

Chiesa di S. Lorenzo

Porta Iova o dei Borsari

Chiesa di S.ta Eufemia

view along the river

view along the river

After walking along the river, I came to the Duomo.  They were very strict about dress code that they even had scarves for the girls who didn't have their shoulders covered.  From the Duomo, I continued walking along the river where I came to see the Ponte Pietra and the Teatro Romano.  I started walking away from the river back to the center of Verona.  There I saw the Piazza dei Signori and the Chiesa S.ta Maria Antica.  As I was headed to Piazza Erbe to do some shopping, I just so happened to walk by the Capulet House and Juliet's Balcony.

Chiesa del Duomo

Ponte Pietra

Ponte Pietra

Teatro Romano

Piazza dei Signori

Dante

Piazza Erbe

Juliet's Balcony at the House of Capulets

Love Letters to Juliet

Verona was a lot smaller than I figured because I did all of this sightseeing in the morning.  I even had time for a little nap this afternoon before I headed back out.  After my little nap I headed back out to the streets of Verona, where I walked to the Anfiteatro Arena.  Surrounding the theater were stage props.  It looked like they were getting ready to set up for a show in the Arena.  I must say that as I was walking around, I saw so many high end shops.  You would think that you were in Florence or Milan with all the shopping available.  All the tourists were carrying big bags of items from the high end stores.  Verona was a beautiful place, and now I just have to sleep and get to the train station in the morning to get back to Civitanova for a birthday party!