17. August 2009 10:18
by Rene Pallesen
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Verona and the Opera - Italy
17. August 2009 10:18 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments
We arrived to Milan in Italy from Copenhagen in the evening. The first thing we did after landing was to pick up our rental car which was a small Fiat Panda (Never, ever rent a large car in Italy...some streets only accomodate snall cars) and then drive to our Hotel. The Tom-Tom nagigator software on my mobile phone turned out to be exceptionally useful on our trip to find our way around.
The next morning we drove towards Verona and at lunchtime we had a look at our map and noticed that we'd drive right past Lago di Gardia (Lake Garda). I asked Kim to plan a diversion somewhere for a lakeside lunch.
She chose Sirmione which is a long peninsula on the southern side of the lake.
I used to stay at Lake Garda with my parents when I was a kid. The water is bright blue and it is a beautiful place.
We then continued to Verona early afternoon and found our bed and breakfast which is about a kilometer from the city centre. The road up there was very narrow and anything wider than the Panda would not have been able to get through.
As soon as we had gotten settled we walked down into the city centre.
We had opera tickets for Aida in the old coloseum in Verona in the evening, but had to first pick up the tickets. The tickets were quite pricey so we had chosen to get ticket on the upper stairs with almost everyone else.
It meant that it was a bit less confortable and that we would have to enter early to get a good seat. But it also meant that we were sitting up higher which is better for taking photos.
The performance was amazing. There was approximately 500 actors on stage (and 4 horses) and ther used about a quarter of the coloseum as the stage.
It was a beautiful and warm night with a brightly lit full moon.
The performance finished around 1am at night and from there we walked to one of the squares of Verona and had some coffee (Places were still open).
The next morning we did a bit more exploration around Verona. Kim wanted to see the romantic balcony of Romeo and Juliet (Or Donald and Daffy Duck as I called them as they are just as real as the imaginary Romeo and Juliet)
Since we were there we also had to rub the right breast of the Juliet statue there for good luck.
In Daffy's house they also has a lot of interesting art work.
Verona is an interesting city. They have a whale bone suspended from one of the gates...apparently the legend says that it will fall down upon the first 'Just' man who passes under it (and kills him??). Unfortunately (or fortunately) it didn't fall on neither Kim or I.
The city is full of old buildings with interesting architecture
