Abenteuer Zweiundzwanzig: Verona

When I got to Verona, I really didn't expect to see much. I knew that Verona had a roman amphitheater and that it was the cite of Romeo and Juliet. Other than that, I figured that Verona was just a quiet little Italian town.

I was wrong. Verona is a fascinating place. Man, it has history.

No one's really sure when Verona was first occupied, but we do know that, when the Romans first got there in 300 B.C, they found it already occupied. Verona was a part of the republic of Venice before it became Italian. It was also the cite of several bombings in World War Two. Walking around, you can see Roman ruins, medieval castles, Gothic churches, modern art...you can see a thousand+ years of Italian history over the course of a day.

Verona is also super tourist-accessible. Most of the main sightseeing attractions can be reached easily on-foot from the  city center. There are also very nice, legible signs at every street corner telling you how to get to whichever attraction you may want to see next.

My first tourist attraction (after the train station) was the Roman arena. The walk there was quite pretty.

There's a beautiful little park outside of the train station

The historic town wall--I'm guessing it's from the Middle ages..?

 In front of the arena lies a beautiful public park.

I knew I was going to be at the Colosseum in a few days, so I figured the Verona arena was a good warm up.

Inside, I discovered a shocking fact. The arena...looked pretty much like an arena.

They haven't changed much in a thousand years.

The red seats at the bottom had been recently set out, and large portions of the stage and nosebleed seats were under renovation. The reason: opera season.

Apparently, every year the city of Verona puts on operas in the arena. Had I arrived one month later, I could have watched one. C'est La'vie.

Anyway, I spent the next hour or so (until my back started to truly hate me--I was still carrying my backpack and had been ever since the morning) exploring the arena.

View from the inside

View from the top

Leaving the arena turned out to be much more of a challenge than I had first expected it would be. There were clearly marked exit signs all over the arena--all of these leading to staircases which took you all the way down to the bottom level, where all, with the exception of one, were heavily gated off. To get between these exits, additionally, one had to hike basically all the way back up to the top of the arena each time.

I got quite the workout trying to get out...

After I escaped the labyrinth that was the exit system, I headed off in search of my Bed and Breakfast.

Sightseeing along the way--San Fermo di Maggiore

Turns out that my BnB was in another unmarked area occupying several floors of an unmarked building in the middle of an unmarked street (I think Italians have problems with labeling things...)

My bed and breakfast in Verona was one of the most expensive places I stayed in. It was also one of the creepiest.

I was the only person occupying my floor. My room was a tiny, dark little area behind the kitchen with a boarded up window, a coat wrack that was falling off the wall (literally), and a heater that didn't work (to compensate for which, the staff had kindly provided me with an extra blanket). Add all this to the fact that this was the first room I'd stayed in alone since my journey began (all the hostels gave me multiple roommates), and you get one thoroughly discomfited Nixi.

Needless to say, I didn't stay in my room longer than I absolutely had to.

I quickly set back off to see sights.

Demotivational graffiti

Castello San Pietro. More on that later

My first real stop was Juliet's balcony (at least, the balcony to the house that was occupied by the family Juliet's family was supposedly based off of).

Juliet's balcony. I don't really care much about Romeo and Juliet, personally, but I felt obligated as a literature student to come pay this place a visit. After all, Dickens and Byron both did.

Besides, one of my favorite high school English teachers (who, by the way, wrote one of the recommendations that helped me get to Switzerland in the first place) really hated Romeo and Juliet. So I figured I had to visit for her sake.

 A funny thing about Juliet's balcony--there's this lovely sign that asks visitors to please not leave any messages to Juliet in the courtyard. This is funny because, um...

Anyway...

Right across the street from Juliet's house stood a little bakery and chocolate shop. They had a sign out front advertising "hot chocolate" with rum. I went in to get a glass. Little did I realize that this "hot chocolate" drink

 was literally chocolate. I mean...it was more or less like drinking a glass of watered-down Hershey's syrup. But hot. And laced with rum.

It was pretty good, though...

I explored more. 

A historical church. Not sure which one.

I headed off towards the Castel San Pietro.

A market along the way

From the top of the hill, I had an amazing view.

The sun set from Castel San Pietro is one of the most amazing things I've experienced in Europe. It's a memory which will stay with me for a long, long time.

That night, I had my dinner in a local  jazz club near the arena. I ordered (the cheapest things on the menu) espresso and bruscetta.

I've never imagined that tomatoes on toast could taste so good.

The jazz trio they had playing that night was simply out of this world. In order to have an excuse to sit around and listen a while longer, I ordered myself a tiny glass of grappa.

Oh. My. Goodness.
Grappa.

Since I've been in Europe, I've tried a variety of liquors. I've sampled Mexican tequila with a Mexican friend,  and I've had "good Russian" vodka with a Russian. I've even tried a few different varieties of our beloved Swiss drinks, Kirsch and Absinthe.

I have never. Tried ANYTHING. As strong. As grappa.

My waiter served me about two thimbles worth of grappa. It took me over an hour and a half to get through it. I mean, wow. 

On the plus side, I'd been suffering from a cold since the day I left Switzerland. After two thimbles of grappa, my symptoms disappeared for the rest of the trip.

When the concert ended, I headed back to my creepy little room in the BnB. Not even grappa could dispel the gloominess of the place, and I stayed up for several hours reading before I could finally convince myself that the Venetian prison ghost hadn't followed me and fall asleep.