Verona, Italy

Posted on | May 26, 2009 | 2 Comments

Verona, Italy

“Two households both alike in dignity, In fair Verona where we lay our scene.” – Shakespeare

Drawing of the view from our table at Alle Fogge in Verona, Italy

Seriously, could an English & American Literature major miss the opportunity to visit the setting of Shakespeare’s greatest known tragic love story, Romeo & Juliet? Certainly not this one! Verona is such a beautiful city. We really enjoyed our day there.

Juliet's Balcony, Verona, Italy.

We stayed at the Due Torri Baglioni Hotel. It’s a beautiful hotel. The rooms were lovely, and it’s located in the Piazza St. Anastasia, right next to a lovely Basiclica St. Anastasia. We stopped a few blocks down the street from it to have lunch on Alle Fosse.

From there, we walked through Verona and really enjoyed the size of the city. It’s a small enough city that we could cover most of it in a day and still relax and enjoy it. We walked to the Piazza Bra, where there is an original Coliseum still standing and still in use. They were preparing for what looked like a production of Antony & Cleopatra.

Festival in the Piazza Bra, Verona, Italy

Lamp Post, Verona, Italy

At the Piazza, we sat and went for coffee and gelato (Dave, of course, had the gelato!) while I drew a picture of one of the tents in the festival that was going on in the Piazza. There were, for the most part, food tents. From our seat at the cafe, I could see this cheese tent (left) that I just had to draw. And then I noticed this fabulous lamp post and, of course, I needed to draw that, as well. I love that all the lamp posts that used to run by gas or candle are now retro-fitted to be electric. It adds such a flavor to the cities.

Verona's Coliseum preparing for a new production. Verona, Italy

That evening, we had reservations at one of the smallest restaurants we’ve ever been to, Arche. It’s family-owned and run, since it opened in 1879! Rather than having a wait staff that takes the orders, Chef Giancarlo Gioco comes out to meet each guest and discuss the menu. Their specialty is seafood and the fod was cooked completely without anything I was allergic to. The meal was, by far, the very best we had in our entire time in Italy – and that’s saying something, since all the food was great!

We left the next morning for Venice. I’ll be telling you all about that in the next installment of our trip!

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