Verona, Italy - August 8-9, 2006

Welcome to Verona, Italy. A few hours west of Venice on the road to Milan. This quaint Italian villa is known as "little Rome" because of its famous outdoor amphitheatre in the city centre and thus was the closest I would come to the actual Rome on my trip - a move I hope was strategic and will result in a future trip to south and central Italy. It was here in Verona that I met two Koreans - Jin and Jay - who were also travelling from Venice on a small tour of northern Italy. Jin lived in the outskirts of Milan where he was learning to make violins in the tradition of the famous handcrafted works of Strativarius, etc. Each one would sell for a few thousand! His friend Jay was visiting from Korea and Jin was taking him around the countryside.

The hostel - a retrofitted monastery - proved to be one of the nicer places to stay although their "included breakfast" translated into cereal and powdered juice drink. The three of us decided to stay here together. Jin could speak decent English and was fluent or almost fluent in Italian while Jay had to wait for translation into Korean and vis versa.

My first sight of a real Roman ruin - mainly restored. This small outdoor amphitheatre was just down the hill from our hostel. It was buried and built over-top-of but most of it has been cleared away and restored and is now used for musical productions.

The Adige River provides a natural barrier between the core and the peripheral areas of Verona to the North and East. The centrality of rivers in European cities and towns provides some interesting contrast to Canadian cities.

Looking south from one of the frequent bridges that cross the Adige.

Northern Italy shines with its brick buildings that somehow avoid the look of the Ol' Spaghetti Factory while still bringing that nostalgia to the fore. Mmmmm... spaghetti.

A cathedral - perhaps the spot where Romeo and Juliet were wed. I couldn't resist the storyline while walking through this fabled city.

A view of the Italian countryside north of the Adige. The heat reminds me of Kelowna but the land stays green thanks to the preponderance of evergreens.

The fountain of Piazza Erbe. After successfully managing to figure out the Italian phone system and calling York from this square I took advantage of Italian generosity and ate the bounty of free appetizers that come with any ordered drink. Bruschetta, potato chips and olives are generally the items served free which can make a cheap light meal.

The famous balcony and Juliet herself awaiting her lost love beneath it. Shakespeare's tragedy was actually based on the clan-ish fighting of two houses in Verona during the 13th century. This house was known to belong to the "Capulet" family.

Giulietta and I. Not meant to be a perverted pose - its good luck! Try and get those Koreans to do it though! I've never seen such embarrasment, although I think we managed to get a photo for both of them.

To the chagrin of the Veronese historical society, it has become just as traditional to write love notes on the walls of the Capulet building. Like some kind of primitive dating service, these notes ask Juliet to help the loveless find a date or to immortalize some couple's relationship.

Here's a close-up. Since there's no room on the wall itself to grafitti people have resorted to sticking pieces of paper to the wall with their note.

Summon Russell Crowe, its the Arena! The famous central amphitheatre of Verona that earned it the name "piccola Roma". I wish I could have caputred the sheer size of the building but it was impossible. Access was restricted as well because it was opera night, so I did what any sucker for Roman history would do, I bought a ticket!

A glimpse of the curvature of the colloseum-like Arena. An advertisement for Pearl Jam, which was playing this venue in September, made me drool.

The Piazza Bra which opens up to the south of the Arena.

The inner city that is not bounded by the Adige (as it is on the North and East) is surrounded by a high and thick wall. This entrance way at the southern end of the Piazza Bra is one of the few entrances into the inner city from the outside. From the airplane trip into Venice, I could see that almost all the towns were built on this feudalistic model of an encircled inner core with a outer ring.

Inside the Arena. I was in the nose-bleed section (above). They rent cushions to those softer-bummed fellows but I went without. The stone seats were incredibly warm from soaking up the day's heat and kept my bottom toasty until well after sun-down.

It doesn't take a Led Zeppelin solo to see the lighters go up. Its part of the tradition here. Luckily the Italians are a smoking bunch.

Various scenes from that night's double-showing. I wish I could tell you what the plot of either story was, from what I gathered it was same-old opera stuff. One woman, her husband, her lover, jealousy, fighting to the death but all done in song. I didn't understand a word of it and only the next day did I meet some fellow travellers (irish lasses) on the way out of Verona who explained it to me (they had smartly printed out the descriptions from the Internet before the show).

The Arena after dark. Crowds file from the opera onto the Piazza Bra.

One of my best night-shots on the trip - the moon and the street lights illuminate this old church.

Another decent night-shot from the eastern bank of the Adige. The illuminated bell tower from the Piazza Erbe towers above the rest of the inner city.

Jay & Jay. Guess which one I am.

Jay & Jin.

Giving credit where credit is due. This dead Englishman has been providing Verona with tourist dollars for centuries now. A famous quotation from Romeo & Juliet in English and Italian is inscribed on a plaque on the wall of the entrance to the Juliet Tomb and Museum.

From the outside looking in. I decided to avoid paying the entrance fee. Seeing a tomb wasn't worth whatever price they were charging, after all, the story didn't include the burying of Juliet, so I figured I'd followed it long enough.

So, like the tragedy my story of Verona ends here. It was a short stay in a city that had no where near the draws of Venice, Rome or Florence but the relative quietness was welcome after being drowned in 'touristness' the day before. Verona was a really nice city to stroll through and had the beauty of seeming to flow right into history and nature, meshing perfectly with the centuries before it and the countryside around it.