My Verona

Flipping through my pictures just now, I'm reminded of how absolutely adorable Verona is. So far, it ranks as one of my favorite Italian towns. The classical, romantic, historic and just plain tranquil feeling Verona has is well worth a trip. The arena in the center of Verona is the third largest in Italy and offers some lovely views from the top. From there we went to Juliet's house and took pictures with Juliet's statue. I opted out of grabbing her chest - I think it's supposed to be good luck or something - but was amazed at the number of people getting so up close and personal with a bronze statue that thousands of people manhandle each day ... GermX anyone? Apparently you can no longer write letters to Juliet and place them in the wall (only in mailboxes), but you can scribble messages in the dark little tunnel that leads into the courtyard - ah, yes, romance lives on. We grabbed lunch at a cute little Trattoria that served several dishes with donkey in them. I did try the donkey ravioli and will have to put that experience in the 'Done it once - no need to do it again' column. They definitely use a good amount of spices with the donkey meat ... I'm just not sure if they are trying to cover up some kind of heinous flavor or not. We did find a fantastic gelato place (line out the door to prove it) on the river before heading back to the train station. All in all, a wonderful place to visit.

Juliet's Balcony

Little messages of love ... aka graffiti

The arena

Looking down on the market in the center from the arena

Some fantastically costumed street performers

Along the river ...

Locks on one of the bridges. I believe the reasoning is that two lovers place a lock on a bridge to show how enduring their feelings for each other are - I just wonder who keeps the key on the off chance that things don't work out ...

Many of the churches in Verona use alternating layers of white stone and brick. I also love the painted ceilings you see everywhere in Italy.

Juliet

The Alps

Okay, so it's been a little over a month since my first post so I will try to play a bit of catch up with the next few. We are settled into our apartment now - just in time for the real classes to start up at school. I've learned a few general things about Italy that were somewhat surprising ... 1. The bread is, unfortunately, not that great. We have been searching for decent whole grain (or at least whole wheat) bread, but can only find the plain white and generally not so tasty bread. Ah well. We'll survive until we can fit in a trip to Germany, France, or Austria where I hear the bread is delicious. 2. We probably do eat gelato more than we should. Let's face it, though, if we were home we'd likely have a carton or two of Breyer's in the freezer so it all balances out in the end. Plus the flavor are so tempting and unique over here; you have to try them all ... repeatedly. 3. They definitely have better yogurt flavors (walnut, kiwi, pineapple to name a few). Unfortunately, yogurt, soap and just about any other semi-liquid substance seems a bit runny over here compared to the thicker US counterpart. More on the country comparisons later. Our first trip outside Bologna was to the Alps. More specifically to a town near Bolzano named Trafoi. I absolutely love the mountains. The views were stunning - much grander and sharper than the mountains at home. Although we were still in Italy, everyone spoke German and were even seen sporting some lederhosen. The food we had at a little Italian place the second night was delectable. I would give almost anything to get the recipe for the zucchini soup we had - so smooth yet complex with layers of flavors I can only begin to guess at. Enough talk. Here are some pictures to back up my claims ...


Trautsmandorf Gardens - definitely worth a visit.






Flower box on top of a mountain.


Our hotel ...