Weekend Trip- Verona Part I- Pure enchantment

I get it, Shakespeare. Verona is an inspiringly magical city. This weekend I was so kindly invited to go along with my dear new friends Rachel, Ruthie and Jenny to go visit Verona and Genova. We left after class on Friday and arrived in Verona in time for lunch. Being sensible, travel savvy ladies, we followed Rick Steve's advice and bought "Verona Cards" which for 10 euros got us a 24 hour bus pass and free access to many of the highlights of the city. After a somewhat lengthy (aka we went the WRONG way) bus ride, we ended up in the city center, Piazza Bra (yes, we giggled). We quickly noticed there was some sort of little festival going on in the center of the piazza. The festival was obviously being hosted by these nice older gentlemen with fabulous green feathered caps. The gentlemen were as delighted with us friendly American girls as we were with them and their cute hats, and gave us samples of their local goodies- Champagne, candy, peppers, cheese, pickles, wine, more candy, and even an apple in a box!

We moseyed along up to the colosseum, apparently one of the best preserved arenas in Italy. They still host plays there in the summer months!

We scrambled up the massive steps- apparently they did things big back in the day...

And sat at the top and had a picnic lunch! We pulled out our groceries from the local supermarket and with chilled fingers and big grins enjoyed our lunch with a view.

Looking off the edge of the colosseum at Piazza Bra.

After lunch we decided to get through as many of the spots on the Verona card as we could before everything closed at 7:30. We wandered purposefully through the main piazzas and charming alleys, the entire time surrounded by entirely old, charming buildings and all sorts of breathtaking architecture.

We decided to go up the tower- aka tower of death- in order to get a panoramic view of the town. Instead of paying the 1 euro for the elevator, we decided to use our young, supposedly strong legs to climb the 500 or so stairs to the top. Let's just say we earned that view!!!

After that we headed to Juliet's house (I'm skipping that for now, see next post), took the requisite balcony pictures and headed to the Roman ruins. On the way we walked along the river that winds itself around Verona- the sight and even the smell of water made me feel so restored and somehow added to my growing love for Verona.

We made it to the ruins around dusk, and the softening light gave the place this wonderful glow, making an incredibly awesome spot even more magical. The feeling of being in such an ancient place was incredible, I really don't know how to describe it. It felt as though the ruins had this palpable energy that just filled me with a feeling of wonderment and fulfillment. Side note- by this point it was lightly snowing... maybe part of the reason we were the only ones there!

We of course proceeded to take a series of appropriately solemn pictures to document the mood of the place... Ha!

The ruins extended all the way up the hill, starting with an amphitheater, then a first "promenade," where the sculpture museum was located, then a second promenade, which we saved for the next morning.

Can I just take a second to say how much fun my travel buddies were? Seriously wonderful girls that I am so blessed to have met up with here in Milan. We were giggling and having a great time all weekend. Here's some proof, Rachel and I right after she jumped out of the shrubbery at the ruins and scared the crap out of me (notice my relieved expression).

We finally tore ourselves away and raced over to the castle museum on the other side of town. We walked through the paintings gallery and admired the Renaissance art. Ruthie and I felt very intelligent as we were able to identify some of the subjects/scenes from our Art History class. This is a picture of the castle bridge, which of course we walked across just for the heck of it. Bonus- the museum was heated!

Though it was a little early for dinner, we decided to be unfashionable tourist and start dinner at around 8 as were were absolutely freezing and had found a very cute looking local spot earlier with "live music". The live music turned out to be our old friend pictured below, who basically sang kareoke while making an electric key-board do as much of the instrumentation as possible. He thought we were just the cutest things- and especially loved my blue eyes. The food was fabulous, the other diners all local regulars, and the service very friendly and helpful.

We trekked up to our hostel, located up on the hill behind the ruins. We started the morning with a brisk climb up to the very top of the ruins and admired the panoramic view of the entire city (see picture at the very beginning of this very long post). Then we headed off to Genova!

Ciao for now!

Note: Photo credits from all of Verona and Genova goes to the fabulously talented Ruthie Leigh who so kindly dumped all her raw images onto facebook for me to steal!