Italy: Day 7, Part 2

Two households, both alike in dignity, 
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, 
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. 


Romeo and Julient, Act 1, Prologue

Go on, admit it. You just swooned a little bit. I get it, I did it too. I'll let you in on a little secret though. Come close so I can whisper it. I don't like Romeo and Juliet. What? I know, I'm ashamed. But seriously, I just think they were stupid, senseless, selfish children. I'm not going to rant about it or even get up on my soap box. I just had to tell you. Can we still be friends?

Anyway.

We left Pisa about 11 or 12ish and headed to an outlet mall (I know, an outlet mall in Italy. I may have pinched myself.) in San Barbarino (or something like that). Matt and I perused the stores but didn't really see anything that we couldn't live without. I don't think I even took any pictures. But we did it, so I had to tell you about it.

Wait. I'm lying. We did find something we couldn't live without. Chocolate. Included in the outlet mall was  a Lindt outlet. We spent about 15 euros on chocolate. Me, feeling guilty? Nope.

And then we got on the bus and drove to Verona which is several hours away from San B. We got to the city about 4:30 or 5 and had about an hour or two to browse before we were to meet back up for dinner. But first, we got a quick walking tour from our group guide.

Oh, another walled city. Shocker.

First thing we noticed when we got to the city center: a colosseum. The colosseum is still being used as an ampitheatre today. I know, how amazing would it be to see a show there. Gladiators aren't the main attraction anymore. When we were there, we saw posters for a Madonna concert and of course, Romeo and Juliet. Jealous. Side note: Verona seems to be most famous for Romeo and Juliet, but The Taming of the Shrew was also set in Verona along with another one that has Verona in the name, but I can't remember it.
 

Look, you can see outdoor lighting has been added.

After the arena, we went to the House of Juliet or Casa di Giulietta.  Ever seen that movie, Letters to Juliet? Well, the scene of Juliet's balcony is just like in real life, expect for the millions of people vying for photo-ops in about 100 square feet and there's no actual wall to stick letters into. There is a wall full of graffiti, but no real wall with little holes for the letters. That's not real. The movie was based on a book about the letters that broken-hearted teenage girls send to Juliet, but they actually come in the mail. There's just no place to leave an actual letter.

Juliet's balcony

When we entered the courtyard of Juliet's house, there was a little boy up on that balcony. I hope I wasn't the only one who thought that was just wrong. Little boys do not belong on Juliet's balcony.

Juliet

And here's a statue of little fourteen-year old Juliet. You can see that certain portions of her are um, worn. Supposedly, if you rub Juliet's chest, you will have good fortune. I think, in America, rubbing a 14-year old girl's chest will just get your picture in the paper every time you move.  Actually, to get a picture of Juliet without her being groped, I persuaded our Australian mate to get in line to touch her and hesitate a bit so I'd have time to her a shot of her. Please note, I said "a shot of her" not "a shot at her." I don't want my picture in the paper.

After leaving Juliet's courtyard, we headed to explore on streets of marble. Yep, the main streets of Verona are at least topped with marble. Look:

I tried to walk on the edges of the street so as to not wear down the marble.

My face looks puffy.

The standard "drink" in Verona is famous all over Italy, but I'd never heard of it. It's called a spritz. It's bright orange from some Italian liqueur called Aperol, but also has sparkling white wine, and a little seltzer water. It's typically served with olives and chips.

After getting a little refreshment, we hit the streets to find an ATM. We were going to in Venice the next day and knew that we would need euros to pay for transportation. However, we could only find two ATMs. Normally, one would be sufficient, but there is a particular bank that didn't care for our silly American debit card. Both of those ATMs were from that bank. We were pretty close to despairing. We had about decided to just go to dinner with the group which was already paid for and worry about money once we got to Venice but on our walk to the restaurant, we saw a Barclay's! We were saved! Matt ran in and got some euros and we went to dinner all relaxed because we weren't broke in Italy.

For dinner, I don't have pictures. However, I can tell you that we had a cheese plate for antipasto, gnocci for first, chicken with potatoes for second, and ice cream for dessert. It was good, but still, I was ready for an American breakfast.

After dinner, we headed back to our bus. We drove to the outskirts of the city and then pulled over. It seemed our trusty traveling conveyance busted a belt. We sat on the side of the road for a couple of hours before our driver could take apart the engine and duct tape it back together. We finally made it to Venice about 1 in the morning. But you'll have to wait and hear about that tomorrow. Yep, tomorrow. I'm about tired of only writing about Italy.  Day 7 has three parts though...