Se ami qualcuno, portalo a Verona

Translation: If you love someone, bring them to Verona.

I have to say, I was surprised at how truly beautiful Verona, Italy was.  The trip with Florence for Fun and all my roommates was a last minute trip booked earlier in the week; I put off booking the trip because I wasn't sure I was interested in visiting a city already known for being romantic and of course this weekend was the weekend before Valentines Day so Verona holds a festival called "Verona In Love".

After looking over the tour schedule for the day and the low price, I decided to book the trip.  I'm so glad I did because it was AMAZING.  Once getting into Verona by private coach bus, I was amazed to see how clean, traditional, and beauiful every single building was.  I don't think there was one building I saw during our entire day trip that wasn't decorated with ivory vines, flowers, iron balcony gates, or something for Valentines day!

We began our tour with a break, since we had been on the bus for 3 hours.  We ran across the street to a little bar for some cappachinos and an awesome chocolate/nutella filled croissant.  The tour then really began in Piazza Bra; a gorgeous fountain and park situated right next to the Roman Arena.  The Roman Arena is similar to the Colessum in Rome and is considered the third largest amphitheater in existance seating around 30,000 people.  During the summer months, it rivals the Syndey Opera House with its Verona Opera Festival. To get into the center of the romantic city of Verona, you enter under the Porta Borsari which is an arch that is believed to be built during 1st century AD, AND ITS STILL STANDING TALL.

Next we went to the Lover's Well.  The story behind the Lover's Well is that two young Veronese were in love but the man believed that the woman in the relationship was incapable of committing herself to him quoting that "the blood in your veins is as cold as the water at the bottom of the well"  In response the woman said "if you really loved me you would jump into the bottom of the well to see how cold that water really is"  Since the man truly loved her, he jumped into the well and the woman felt so terrible and missed him as soon as he jumped so she jumped in after him and the two disappeared together forever.  Now people are suppossed to drop a coin into the well and while its dropping think about what they would like thier ultimate destiny to be and it will come true.  Of course I threw some coins in!

While on our way to the next sight be were walked through Piazza delle Erbe, the most famous and exciting Piazza in Verona.  The Piazza is filled with restaurants, shops, the fountain Lady of Verona, the 14th Century Garadello Tower which is topped with statues of the six divinities.  This area was swarmed with tourists for obvious reasons.

Next we walked to the Ponte Pietra, a bridge that was originally constructed in 1503 then rebuilt several times in wood then stone then wood then stone etc.  From the bridge we were able to see the Castel San Pietro, which was formerly an Austrian barrack and is now closed to the public but its still gorgeous.

After the bridge we made our way to Basilica of Saint Anastasia.  The outside of the church was beautiful with a mix of reniassance and spanish architeture.  We went inside and of course the ceiling paintings were breathtaking.  The only weird part was that there was a church service in progress but anyone was allowed to enter and look around the church while this was happening.  Anna and I felt super awkward so we made our way outside after only a few pictures.

After the church we went to the Arche Scaligeri.  Apparently most Italian cities have like one major family that runs everything for years and then in taken down and disappear.  Verona's family is the Scala Family.  The Arche Scaligeri is a court yard outside of a church which is filled with the tombs of the Scala Family and protected by ornate iron fences.

Conveintly around the corner from the Scala family was Romeo's house. that is if you would like to call a cement wall with a sign and wooden garage door as a house.  When I think of Romeo's house I think of a mansion like in Shakespeare but it's nothing like that at all aka disappointing.

Luckily around the corner from Romeo's wall were the Roman Ruins.  The Ruins are actually located below the city so in a courtyard there were large glass circles you could look through.  Its insane but there are still mosaics that are intact and beautiful!

Our last guided location was to Juliet's house.  Our tour guide led us down a little road, we turned left and were greeted by swormes of tourists.  There is a tunnel which is covered in peoples writing of thier lovers all over the wall which opens into a small court yard.  The courtyard was jam-packed with people taking pictures, kissing, waiting in line to enter Juliet's house and go to her balcony, and poeple waiting in line to take a picture with the bronze statue of Juliet.  We waited in line for 5 minutes before we were tired of waiting to stand on a balcony so we just went and took a picture with the statue.  In my picture you can see that I'm grabbing her boob.  No, I'm not a pervert, I had good reason!  According to ledgend, if you rub Juliet's left boob then you are suppossed to get good fortune while finding a new lover!

After Juilet's balcony we were free to explore the city on our own.  Of course our first priority was FOOD.  Verona is known for the serving of cavallo aka horse.  Our one roommates was totally against this and another doesn't eat red meat so the group split in half; it was a once in a lifetime opportunity so I wasn't going to pass up the chance to try some!  Anna, April, and I asked our tour guide for some suggestions of place to eat, unfortunately we got a little lost looking for her restuarant before getting there.  Once we got there we were shocked to see the menu where there wasn't anything for under 30 Euro, PASS.

We wandered the streets as it began to rain still looking for a place that served cavallo when we came upon a place that looked quiet from the outside.  We opened the door was were greeted by a delicious smell of veggies, meat, dessert, and just plain goodness along all of the those ingredients beings hung on display!  We waited a few minutes in the busy restuarant before anyone who worked there even saw us.  Finally we were approached by an Italian woman who said something in Italian and we replied "Three please".  Then to our surprise she goes "No. No Room. Bye."  We stood there confused before a man working behind the bar came over and asked us if we needed help.  We told him again that we were 3 but we were told NO AGAIN! He felt awkward when we asked if we could wait and stumbled with his words before saying the kitchen was closing.  It was like 10 minutes until two on the busiest weekend of the year for Verona, we were clearly American and unwanted.

We walked around in the rain for about 20 minutes until we were starving, wet, and therefore aggitated.  We went to other first restuarant we saw which ended up actually being pretty good.  I was in the mood for meat since I was teased with the horse meat so I ordered beef stew with a side of veggies and roasted potatos.  We all wanted to try Verona's specialty wine but it was 11 euro per glass, too bad I'm on a budget.  Instead I ordered another Verona specialty drink, a spritzer!  I'm still not sure exactly whats in it but its orange, bubbly, and yummy!

After lunch it stopped raining so we walked to another piazza where the love festival was taking place.  The festival was surprisingly smaller than we all expected but we made the best of it by trying all the samples.  I tried several white wines and ended up buying a Soave ( Veronese White Wine Specialty) and Verona in Love Limited Edition White Zinfindel, both to share with Anna.  I also tried a bunch of different olive oils and cheeses which were delicious but not worth the euro's or having to carry them for the rest of the day.

We also went to a bakery where I wanted a piece of almond shortbread covered in grappa but unfortunately it was only avalible by the entire pie which i also didnt want to carry so I settled for an animal marzipan.  I have no idea what it was but they are a specialty of Verona and were only .60 euro so I tried it.  The middle was good but the outsiede which was bright pink was a weird taste so I quickly finished it before we walked around more.

Before meeting the group to leave for the day, we wanted to try what else? Gelato!  The three of us decided that we were going to try gelato in every Italian city so at the end of the trip we could decide which city makes the best.  For Verona i settled on Fraggola (strawberry) and something about mixed berry in a cone.  The strawberry was pretty good but not my favorite and the berry tasted like Trix yogurt.  Verona is definately not at the top of the gelato list.  We still had some time to kill and it started to rain again making it cold outside so we wandered into a cafe and split a bottle of white wine.

The bus ride home we watched Romeo and Juliet then How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days while I doozed on and off and ate some of the free chocolate stuffed with nutella.  It was a lovely day all around!

Hope everyone is enjoying thier Valentines Day, all the roommates and I are going to a romantic restaurant with a set menu near Santa Maria Novella.

Love and Miss all of you!