Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Verona Pics....Finally!

Ok...first of all. I loved our trip to Verona. If you are looking for a town without major sights, but still authentic Italy, then this is the place for you.

We left for Verona on Saturday morning and opted not to take the Autostrada, but instead the scenic route. Big mistake. It took FOREVER! Mainly because we had to go through 50 some traffic circles just to get out of Vicenza. No I'm not joking.

Once we got to Verona we parked and started walking toward the town center. For any of those that drive and go there is a good parking garage only about five minutes from the Arena. It's cheap too. Only cost us about 13 Euro for about 24 hours.




Piazza Bra


Once you walk past the old town walls you are greeted with a huge piazza. Piazza Bra is the name of it. There are cafes all on one side of it, a park in the middle and of course the impressive Arena right in front of you. The Arena is the Roman Colisseum in Verona. It's honestly an awesome sight. It's the third largest colisseum in the Roman world.



Sean and I in front of the Arena.


Sean playing Gladiator

My tip? Buy the Verona card if you plan on seeing more than one sight. It's 10 Euro for a day and it has about 10 sights on it. Well worth it in my opinion.

Next up? Some window shopping and then Piazza Erbe. This is where the main market is held, however we weren't there on a market day.

Lunch for me was some smoked salmon and crostini. No pictures of any food. I kind of forgot about doing that this trip. I'll make sure I start though. Sean had pizza, that I of course taste-tested and it was indeed pretty good.

Another piazza, this time with a statue of Dante (complete with pigeon on his head) and an old whale rib hanging over the entrance to the piazza. They say it's some sort of souviner from several hundred years ago. I'm not one for keeping whale ribs as souviners, but to each his own.



Dante..complete with bird on his head.





The infamous whale rib



Perfect Ambiance for strolling in the Piazza



On to Juliet's house. It's not really her house, just a sort of tourist trap, but that doesn't mean it's not fun to rub her boob and pose on the balcony.



This one was for you Lindsay!

Sean and I also left our names in a heart on the graffiti love wall in the courtyard.



We ended up staying the night in Verona at the Hotel Mastini( I think that's right). It was a great hotel and I loved our room, but the bed was beyond hard.

Sean nicknamed this the Karma Sutra chair.



Next morning Sean and I went out sightseeing before we left for Vicenza. We had a few interesting encounters with some people. First of all a vendor gave me a sewn card with Verona on it, an older gentlemen thought we were German for some reason and gave us some sort of pamphlet about a site that was in German and lastly a lady who seemed to be Hungarian asked us for some directions and then upon hearing us talk asked if we were British because "our English was so good". I told Sean she'd obviously never heard a British person talk because we do not sound British at all.



The expression on this guy makes me laugh!

Our main goal that morning was to get to the river and see the bridge that was destroyed during WWII and after that fact the townspeople fished the stones out of the river and rebuilt it.





This is just a random door knocker, but I loved how unusual it is.

I didn't get to see everything here, but one of these days I'd like to get back and visit the things we missed.

I have way more pictures, but I'll try to put more up later this week.

Ciao!

27 comments:

NYStateBeauty said...

Lovely! I can't wait until I can experience Italy for myself.

Susan said...

Hey New Girl! I found you through Here Comes the Sun. Welcome to Italy. I'm glad you made it to Verona, it's one of my favorite cities here. Great pictures!

Allison said...

great pictures!!

Casey (@ Chaos and Cardboard) said...

How awesome! Now you just need to come visit Germany!

kd said...

Awesome!!

I have a book/documentary recommendation for you: The Rape of Europa. It's about how the Nazis plundered the treasures of Western Europe's art. A lot takes place in Italy, like how the Nazis got mad when they lost Venice so they blew up Michelangelo's bridge (took them 3 tries!!). Anyway, not sure if you have access to it. If not, let me know and I will send it to you!

Oh and there is lots of stuff about the Army so the guys are quiet. ;)

Lindsey said...

What a cool city!! Love the pictures!

tootie said...

Awesome pics! I enjoy hearing about your adventures.

SarahEileen said...

How pretty!

Andrea@Sgt and Mrs Hub said...

What fun! Sounds like you and Sean made some great memories.

And that door knocker - yikes! I'd think twice about knocking... :)

-Andrea

Jon and Steph said...

Looks fabulous!

Anonymous said...

I want to say that I read that the whale bone will fall if you have never told a lie and cross under it. I may be wrong! I see Susan found you! She is a doll, been in Italy a good while too, knows her stuff!

Kebi Cedawna said...

Hey girl! Thanks for sharing the pics, they look amazing. I'm loving that red coat by the way :)

lola said...

Gorgeous pictures and I'm looking forward to more! :)

Tasha said...

Beautiful pictures! Verona looks amazing! I love that pic of your names on the graffiti wall- so cute!

Lindsay Gray said...

You will now have good luck forever...or something like that. I have almost the exact same picture somewhere, I'll have to dig it up.

Great pics! Glad you're getting around and seeing the sights!

Jenny said...

I loved the bird on Dante's head!

Suzanne said...

The pics are awesome! My husband and I are PCS'ing to Vicenza in June, so I'm excited to "live" all of this myself. Question for ya..what did you do with your dog while you were gone? That is my biggest concern with traveling around Italy. Our canine child is 8.5 years old now and a great traveler, but I'm sure we'll need to find somewhere for her to stay from time to time.

Sassy Engineer said...

How fun and beautiful. I'm so jealous! I can't wait to see pictures from all of your travels :)

Sarah said...

I am super jealous! It looks like you had so much fun. Hmm, maybe I'll get the boyfriend to reenlist just to go overseas...=]

Mrs. S said...

How awesome! I love all the pics. I'm happy you are getting out and enjoying all the sights!

Rebecca said...

Looks like an amazing trip! I hope you get to see many more sights!

Kristen said...

It looks like you are having an awesome time! I am so jealous!

nanny said...

Love your pictures! Eat a pizza for me,,,,love their pizza, nothing like Pizza Hut! Oh My! Post pics of vicenza.....

Tania said...

I love all the pictures!

Anonymous said...

Oh it looks so amazing! I am so jealous!

Kelly said...

How wonderful for y'all to be able to soak up all of that rich culture that so many "tourists" are not able to see! I am WAY jealous!

jlc said...

Loved the pics!!