Verona

We spent only part of a day and one night in Verona. It was kind of an afterthought because we didn't want to travel all the way from Venice to Milan in one day and because Susan's aunt and uncle lived there during the 1950s (they loved their stay there). We would happily have spent another day or two there. It was the most relaxing town we visited--a perfect place to unwind from the frenetic pace of Venice. There aren't a lot of "must see" sights there, but as you'll see from the photographs, it's one of the most beautiful cities in northern Italy.

The most famous sight in Verona (not counting faux Romeo and Juliet sites) is the Coliseum. It is the third largest that the Romans built and is by far the best preserved. They still hold performances there in the summer time. They were setting up for Aida when we were there, but there was no show that night. Concerts are supposed to be spectacular with acoustics created by some happy accident about 2000 years ago. It was hard to get a shot because of the market day set up around the Coliseum, but here's a shot of some arches I liked.

This is the market. It made my mouth water. The meat and cheese on sale here was the best we saw anywhere in Italy. We came back in the evening and had dinner from one of the food stalls--a grilled onion and proscuitto crudo pannini.

There were literally dozens of beautiful street scenes like these.

The other big attraction in Verona is the Scaligeri Castle. This bunch was a fairly ruthless ruling family in power for more than a century. They had the quaint habit of succession by murder. Fortunately for them, they had big families. The castle itself is quite pretty and sits on the bank of the Adige River. Here are some shots of the frescoes archeologists have uncovered inside the castle and a shot of the town and river from the ramparts.

And there were doors in Verona

On our way to the main piazza to have lunch, we happened on a very pretty little church. Here's a shot of the interior.

The buildings around the main piazza.

The duomo, while pretty plain from the outside (another unfinished Italian church) was beautiful inside.

The ceiling with detail.

The organ loft.

And the floor.

There was a museum of archeology across the river, so we went to take a look. It turned out that the museum was about 100 feet above the level of the entrance. Susan decided to take a break while I went to see the museum. It turned out there was an elevator, so I really didn't have to walk very far. Here's a picture from the museum, looking down on the amphitheater. You can see Susan sitting in the shade in the middle of the frame. A pretty long ways down.

This is a picture of the town looking back across the river from the museum's terrace.

Verona was a very relaxing stop. It would have been nice to catch our breath there for a day or so more, but we were on the final leg of our journey.

Next up: Milan and Lake Como.