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The Italo train took us to Verona in under an hour; sorry Trenitalia. I had picked out the sites that I wanted to see and left enough room for some exploring. We were of course going to see Juliet’s house (with balcony & statue), the main piazzas (Brá and Erbe), the Arena, some Cathedrals and of course bridges.

I had lowered my expectations for Juliet’s house, as I had read online that it was “unkept” and full of graffiti. Well, yes the passage way into the inner courtyard was indeed covered in “graffiti”, but when you look closer they are love notes. The balcony was lovely and if you wanted to pay an entrance fee for the museum you could go and stand on it. We watched as a few people even blew kisses down to the crowd. Juliet herself was there and I could not resist going up and touching her breast; the bronze polished to a gleam from so many before me. She was surrounded by locks placed there by those looking to hold onto their love forever – it was sweet really but far too crowded for us. We moved on rather quickly.

We strolled through Piazza delle Erbe and looked at all of the tourist stalls and wished for a time when they would have been selling fruits and vegetables instead of snow globes (really) and t-shirts. We crossed the Adige River via the Ponte Pietra and walked along the river bank. The sun was hot and I was getting hungry –  time for a drink and some lunch. We ate pizza at lovely restaurant in the Piazza dei Signori under the watchful eye of Dante.

After lunch we wove our way through the narrow streets of Verona taking in the atmosphere. We found ornate architecture and overpriced tourist traps. We are okay with paying entry fees for museums and art galleries, but almost €19 for an exhibit on Toulouse-Lautrec was a little steep; yes he is one of our favourites but please this is not the Louvre. We wandered some more and as Henrik had enough churches I visited the Verona Cathedral and took the audio guide. It was time to call it a day and head back to Bologna. This time we took Trenitalia as Italo ran train did not leave until the evening; same amount of money, twice the time and the compartment was like an oven… oh well.

 

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Juliet’s balcony… we had to go!

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