pit stop in verona
Waking up in a foreign place is always an exciting experience (maybe I’m a little biased because I love mornings though). The thing about mornings is that you have the unique experience of watching how the day begins. You see moments that are usually missed by the typical tourist—an owner of a fruit stand bantering with his delivery guy, a mother walking her child to school, an elderly couple reading the newspaper. Simple moments like these just bring me joy and I can’t really explain why. Because I was so excited this morning, I couldn’t stop jumping up and down in our apartment. Unfortunately, my sister Rachel who is not a morning person told me that jumps were banned before 9am. That is a rule I will refuse to live by. Enough about mornings for now…
Today we made an afternoon stop in Verona on our way to Florence from Venice and let me tell you—it did not disappoint. The reason we stopped in Verona originally was because my sister wanted to visit Juliet’s house to snap a picture (seen below) so our expectations were not much. We only knew what we read from our handy Rick Steve’s guide. Rick’s advice about Verona made it seem hardly exciting so we weren’t prepared for too much. What we found was a beautiful city filled with interesting history, diverse architecture, and stunning beauty everywhere you turned. We loved strolling through Piazza Erbe and were shocked by the beauty of the Church of Sant’ Anastasia. Of course we visited the house of Juliet and touched her breasts so that one day we, ourselves would find love. We decided After our afternoon in Verona, we concluded that the pedestrian streets of Verona were more to our liking than the canals of Venice but both are great and wonderful in their own way (still you have to go to Venice once in your life!). Another exciting detail to mention about Verona is it that it holds Roman style coliseum that is actually older than the coliseum in Rome. Because of its exceptional preservation, it is still in use for concerts—plus you can go tour inside (for a small fee of 10 euros). After talking with an old Australian couple who had just walked out of the coliseum we opted out of going inside. They said it was great but they showed us pictures and said if we were going to the coliseum in Rome it would be best to save our money. All in all, Verona was absolutely stunning and such a wonderful place to spend the afternoon. After a warm welcome to Florence with a traditional Tuscan meal with a few new friends, we are happy to be in this city that I love so much!
