Bright and early, we're out the door and off to the bus stop so Felix can head to school and I can have another Verona adventure. I love that I live close enough to major cities to visit them during the school day and still be productive at home. The drive to Verona is uneventful because I've done it a few times and have a solid idea of where I'm going. Leaving is another story - I almost always turn the wrong way exiting the parking garage, but it's an easy fix. Naturally, we're going to want to see the main attractions, but there are several other attractions planned for on this trip. We start out at Piazza Bra as usual and find all the normal haunts... they're not particularly interested in the whole Romeo and Juliet thing, but I convince them that Verona has not been truly visited without at least seeing
the balcony, so we go, we see, we take the token picture and we're out. Lunch is at my usual spot (where I know for sure there's a free toilet!) and we move on to find the basilicas on the list of things to see. Since I've already been inside the major ones a couple times, I wander around while they tour Santa Anastasia then we find our way back through the crowds and wander into one of the markets I haven't seen before (not hard, since there are SO many!).
The market was, like all the others, filled with wonderful things to look at and sample. I'm glad we were there at that time of year especially because the fragrant flowers were in full bloom and the scent in the air was intoxicating. My favorite flowering vine here (glycine - pronounced "glee-chee-nay") was absolutely everywhere and smelled amazing. I love seeing what the different vendors have to offer and am never against window shopping, so it was a fun little sidebar from our general mission. Since I love just wandering through Verona and they had made a point of researching points of interest to them in each city, the only leading I actually did was navigating from point to point and they showed me what they wanted to see. This worked out quite well for me because I got to visit a new museum inside a castle near our parking garage, got more than a little taste of a new set of stairs to climb (I never realized just how hilly pretty much all of Italy is!) and peeked over at some ruins next to Castel San Pietro. Perhaps the best new place they introduced me to, though, was the little gelateria about a block away from Ponte di Pietra (my second favorite bridge in Verona) that has the best gelato I've come across in Italy thus far. Thank you most sincerely for that little gem, Aunt Deb and Uncle Wayde!!
As so often happens, time ran out before sights did. I had to call in a favor to get Felix from the bus stop because the museum was so interesting we lost track of time until it was definitely too late to be back on time! Fortunately, I have amazing and wonderful people in my life who always have my back! We left the castle museum shortly after 5pm and headed back home (yes, I made that right turn instead of left AGAIN) for more delicious Italian food and some rest before the next day's adventure!
The major things I learned were points of interest to share with others who wish to travel Italy: the castle museum was Museo di Castelvecchio, the ruins by Castel San Pietro are a Roman teatro and archeological museum and I still have no idea what the gelateria is called but I know EXACTLY where to find it and will gladly take anyone there for more of that delicious pear gelato!!
The market was, like all the others, filled with wonderful things to look at and sample. I'm glad we were there at that time of year especially because the fragrant flowers were in full bloom and the scent in the air was intoxicating. My favorite flowering vine here (glycine - pronounced "glee-chee-nay") was absolutely everywhere and smelled amazing. I love seeing what the different vendors have to offer and am never against window shopping, so it was a fun little sidebar from our general mission. Since I love just wandering through Verona and they had made a point of researching points of interest to them in each city, the only leading I actually did was navigating from point to point and they showed me what they wanted to see. This worked out quite well for me because I got to visit a new museum inside a castle near our parking garage, got more than a little taste of a new set of stairs to climb (I never realized just how hilly pretty much all of Italy is!) and peeked over at some ruins next to Castel San Pietro. Perhaps the best new place they introduced me to, though, was the little gelateria about a block away from Ponte di Pietra (my second favorite bridge in Verona) that has the best gelato I've come across in Italy thus far. Thank you most sincerely for that little gem, Aunt Deb and Uncle Wayde!!
