C'era una volta...

...two girls, namely Katie and myself, traveled from Padua to Verona. Shakespeare really seemed to like these cities. Here you have Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Romeo and Juliet and others, I'm sure. This happened to be very fitting, though, as it was just a few days prior to "Shakespeare's birthday" or the day that is celebrated as such. I won't go into my opinions, just now, on the identity of the Bard.

We arrived in Verona late evening. We found our little Bed and Breakfast, and set out in search of supper. It was very late, but we found a most amazing little restaurant still open, Ristorante S.Eufemia. It was situated in a little alleyway with a perfect little gate setting off the outdoor seating with lanterns hanging around the tables. We peeked inside, but the place seemed empty. I asked the man at the doorway whether they were still open, and he issued us in and sat us at a table. We had the entire place to ourselves. We ordered quickly, not wanting to keep the family that seemed to be running the business out any longer than need be. Risotto with tartufo nero and Prosecco. We felt like royalty.
As we were wandering around Verona, we came upon a most remarkable sight: a Roman road, in the middle of a Verona road. The piazza had a gaping hole in the center of it, where there was an ongoing excavation of a Roman road which appeared to be connected to the building next to the piazza, one wall of which was an ancient Roman wall.

Our Bed and Breakfast was interesting. Everyone shared one bathroom. Everyone. And Bed and Breakfast might be a generous description. Anyway, the breakfast part of our accommodation was provided by a cafe down the street. As we were sipping our cappuccinos and enjoying our brioche, we watched the locals in the cafe. The proprietor was a young woman, around 30, and as she was bustling around, taking care of all her customers, a delivery man came in with a bouquet of flowers for her. We were quite surprised by this, but the locals knew this to be a common occurrence. They remarked on how pretty today's flowers were and how lucky she was, but we could not hear why they said she got these flowers every day. She treasured them up then finished serving the customers before she could go off in search of a vase. We couldn't help but speculate on her life and who might be sending her these gifts. As the delivery man passed by the door again, she called him in to ask what kind of flowers these were. On the wall, hung a picture of her with friends and she had a ring on her finger. Is she married to a florist, or is he just a real romantic? Certainly one of the best people watching experiences thus far.


After breakfast, we walked towards the Castle S. Pietro, but on our way, we ran into more Roman ruins. They're just all over the place. So we stepped inside the old Roman amphitheater turned convent.

Then we finished our hike to the top of the hill to the castle and had a wonderful view of the city of Verona.
Verona is probably most famous for being the fictional residence of Romeo and Juliet, or the real residence of the fictional characters, rather. Verona has capitalized on this distinction, and has set aside houses for both the Capulets and the Montegues. La Casa Giulietta is covered completely in names and hearts and locks and other such declarations of eternal love. Inside, is the headquarters for the Juliet Club, which is a group of women who reply to the thousands of letters that are mailed to Juliet every year. In whichever language you write your letter, is the same language in which they reply to you. Then, every year at Valentine's they pick their favorite letters they received that year. (Club Juliet)
We then walked through the market, around the arena (where, mind you, Rod Stewart will be performing live this summer) and towards the train station, where we caught a train to Bologna.