Incredible Italy: Verona

After saying see you soon to our friends and the beautiful Dolomites, we headed into the lower elevation to Verona. As we approached the city, we enjoyed the colorful buildings with contrasting colored shutters, little balconies with plants cascading down, and narrow, cobblestone streets. Central Verona is situated in the bow of a river with beautiful bridges crossings. It was our first town in Italy with a ztl zone, an area with restricted traffic, which meant we could not drive into central Verona to our hotel.  This turned out to be trickier than we thought, as we had been told we could park along one street, but it turned out that it was only 2 hour parking. So we left the car for a bit and walked all our luggage and violins across the nearest bridge and to the hotel, enjoying all of the beautiful sights along the way, Roman ruins, churches, varied and colorful architecture. It was nice that there were hardly any cars so all the streets were pedestrian. Once we got settled into our room, we headed back out to tackle the parking, going around in circles a few times until we found a parking garage.  

Unsurprisingly Italy is hot in the summer, and this was no exception. Our friends had given us some tips on keeping the kids happy, the first of which was to take advantage of the gelato, so on our way back from parking, we stopped at a shop and bought scoops and headed to a nearby shady park to enjoy it and Larkin and I practiced out cartwheels and roundoffs.  

We headed up the street and around the corner to visit Juliet's balcony, yes, the Juliet from Romeo and Juliet. If you recall, it was one of two of Shakespeare's plays to be set in Verona. There is no evidence that he visited Verona, and there is no evidence of an actual Juliet or Romeo, but there is evidence of fierce familial feuds in Verona in the 13th century, so perhaps it is based on a real story. Additionally, we heard that the films of Romeo and Juliet were filmed there, but a bit of digging showed that this was also not the case. Chalk it up to romantic thinking, this spot has plenty of that, but fun nonetheless. Included in all the lore is that if you rub the right breast of the Juliet statue it will bring you luck in love.  Counter-intuitive, I know, given her fate. So we headed there, and as we approached we realized the crowds to enter were also phenomenal, so we gave it a little glimpse and continued on our way.  We entered Piazza Delle Erbe, an oval-shaped plaza with so much beautiful architecture and activity it was difficult to focus. I was glad we had watched a travel video before we came, because we knew what we were looking at when we saw things from the video.  For a bit more about why Verona is so incredible and is a UNESCO World Heritage site, check this out, a quick synopsis with beautiful images: https://lionsinthepiazza.com/verona-architecture/

Looking across the river to city center of Verona.

First glimpses at the adorable streets of Verona.

Roman gate incorporated into other architecture.

Verona's Roman past is preserved under its streets, literally, and can be seen in these open pits in the street, as well as in basements throughout the city.

I love the shape of the windows and the details on this building. Almost every building has interesting architectural or historical features...it is a bit overwhelming in the nicest way.

Where's Juliet?

Piazza Della Erbe with its throngs of people, merchants, and points of interest.

This is in the Piazza della Erba, where they would shackle up people who were dishonest at the market and let them receive the ire of the people. I don't imagine it was as much fun as Darrell is having here.

Another view of Piazza della Erbe.

There is a whale rib suspended under this archway.  They say that it will fall onto the most just person to pass through the gate. Hmmm....

Looking up waiting for it to fall on her. I swear this kid courts concussions. None this time.

Well, clearly I have an unjust family, ha!

And it didn't even fall on me... this whale bone has very high standards!

Entering the Cortile Mercato Vecchio, the architecture and alternating reds and whites reminds me of La Mezquita in Cordoba.

A view of the Torre dei Lamberti.

In the Piazza dei Signori with its loads of interesting history, we found a statue of Dante who was a guest in Verona after being exiled from Florence.

Looking back across the Piazza dei Signori toward the Cortile Mercato Vecchio and the Torre dei Lamberti.

Beautiful details everywhere. This is about the time when L really started petering out from the heat, so Darrell took her back to the room to cool off in the ac and G and I continued exploring the city for a bit.

We were the only ones who were visiting Romeo's house; clearly he is not as popular.

Wandering along, we came across the Basilica di Sant'Anastasia.

This little guy was holding up the holy water in the church, with so much personality.

The interiors were striking

All around Verona, the modern architecture offers glimpses of the old architecture, here it shows the old brick underneath and the striped arches. 

After wandering around the city for a bit, the heat began to get G and me as well, so we headed back to the hotel for a cool shower and some easy dinner before getting ready to go out for a special night watching the opera Carmen at the Roman Amphitheater, so Spanish story written by a French composer performed in an Italian cast in a Roman Amphitheater. What a spectacular time in Verona!

All cleaned up and walking to the amphitheater.

Really, could this be more amazing, seeing an opera performed in a 2000 year old Roman amphitheater?

Excited to get into the theater!

The orchestra pit and stage is amazing!

Sunset as the theater fills and they get ready for the performance. 

Love the German family from Dusseldorf who were photobombing us, ha!

Remnants of the outer wall towering above the theater.

The huge cast, including several large horses, comes out onto stage.

The adorable and enthusiastic children's chorus

Incredible Italy: Dolomites 2

Another wonderful day in this gorgeous paradise. We had a slower day yesterday and today, exploring closer to where we are staying. We had a slow morning and didn't leave the house until afternoon. We decided to explore the estate of an aristocratic family from the 13th century, the Conti Welspurg. As we pulled into the parking lot across the river from the estate, we discovered a striking beach and swim area which the children begged to visit. The cold glacial water was a luminescent turquoise from the calcium carbonate eroded from the peaks of the Dolomites. D and G had their swim trunks and braved the cold water, earning the respect of the local Italians.

 

On our drive to our little place, an adorable little cabin with the Dolomites looming behind.

The river we found to swim in, glacial run-off.

After drying off, we headed across the street to the Villa Welsburg and enjoyed a short visit to their gorgeous visitor's center and grounds which were focused on biodiversity and environment. I wish we had more time to explore as there are loads of hiking trails there. 

They placed these tablets with quotes from various authors around the grounds.

Continually awed by the landscape.

Found an adorable little friend...I always feel I more comfortable in a place when I find these little ones.

Looking through the glass of the chapel toward the Welspurg house.

We headed into our nearest town, Primiero San Martino di Castrozza, to explore and to, of course, find some gelato. The town was adorable.

500 year old church was smaller than we expected inside, but it also probably served a very small parish. Interestingly, the clothing of the people at the time of building depicted on the front of the church have clothing that matches that of the Galicians in the 1800s.

All the fountains have potable water for drinking.

Sibling love...a few minutes later L was fighting with him.

Closer to where we are staying, after a mountain thunderstorm, we took a walk up our road and it was breathtaking. The meadows, the "singing forest" of the Italian Spruce which they use for making violins, wildflowers, insects buzzing, cute homes, and changing clouds.

Our little home for the past few days.

Orchids!

Lillies!

The soil is very fine, powdery, sticky silt.

Witches' butter?

I just can't get enough of the view?

And in between all of this, there was much spending time with friends and catching up and gymnastics for the young girls.  Wrapping up our final day, and we definitely feel like we could spend much more time here exploring. This is an absolutely beautiful place, definitely a gem in the world. And so interesting that it is a national park, but so highly managed, with people living in it, harvesting of trees and growing premium hay.  It feels more accessible than some of the national parks in the US, but with less of the crowds aggregated into small areas. People and tourists are spread out here, so there is less impact in single areas. Different models of park management with different results.