“In fair Verona, where we lay our scene . . .”
Well, since Mr. Shakespeare never actually went to Verona — or to anywhere in Italy, for that matter — his “fair Verona” was mostly an imagined city of family feuding and romance.
But before we get to Verona, I’d like to show you a picture from the beautiful drive southward from the Dolomites (SEE PREVIOUS POST).
The Adige River Valley, near the town of Besenello, Italy, a little south of Trento.
Also before we get to Verona, “We lay OUR scene” is near Caselle, a small farming town a few miles southwest of Verona. We stayed in a delightful four-room hotel called B&B Corte Caselle. Located in the middle of farm fields, this brightly colored former horse stable jumps out and demands your attention. (We saw this unusual striped color scheme on a couple of very old buildings in the area, so it’s not just a wacky guy with a paint brush, as we first thought.)
The owner of this wonderful place is a friendly young man named Danielle. He told us about how he bought this former equestrian stable along with the attached house and designed his dream Bed & Breakfast. He converted the stable into 4 bedrooms and an office/lobby and added a gorgeous sunroom with huge windows on three sides for serving breakfast and coffee. He also recommended a nearby restaurant called Ristorante dal Corso that was fantastic.
We can’t let such a wonderful breakfast go by without getting a picture. This buffet-style sunroom had lots of delicious foods.
Danielle (right) is the owner of B&B Corte Caselle. The young women with him is his employee (We forgot her name, sorry!). She takes care of breakfast among other duties around the house.
Verona today lies mostly inside a loop of the winding Adige River in the flat agricultural valley just south of the foothills that lead to the Italian Alps. It has become one of Italy’s most visited cities, and therefore is pretty touristy. Because Shakespeare set his story of Romeo and Juliet there, it’s a brand of tourism that’s heavy on the romance theme. Juliet’s porch was added on to an old building in the 1930s as a draw for tourists. Few seem to care that Juliet did not live there or that the balcony is not the real thing. When in love (or when being a tourist), the truth seems to count less that the opportunity for posting an Instagram photo of such a magical, mythical place.
Like virtually all Italian cities that are on the tourist path, Verona offers history, fashion, food, people-watching — with a little raunch sprinkled in. Oh, and did I mention money? There are a lot of people with serious amounts of disposable income around here.
Piazza Bra is the biggest piazza in Verona. It’s sort of the main entry point into the Centro Storico (historic center) of the city. It’s a huge open square with outdoor cafes on one side and the Roman Arena in the middle.
Arena di Verona is the Roman Amphitheatre in Piazza Bra. It was built in 30 AD, and is still in use today. It’s one of the best preserved ancient structures of its kind. In ancient times, the arena's capacity was 30,000. Today it seats about 22,000, most often for opera perfomances.
In case you’re wondering . . .
Piazza Erbe, originally the Forum during Roman times, is now kind of the central square in Verona. There’s always a lot of activity, including shopping, eating and drinking.
Here we get a glimpse of the Roman streets buried under today’s city.
Which is Yin and which is Yang?
Romeo & Giulietta are still here.
Somewhere between fashion and the bit of raunch I told you about earlier. I think they’re checking their appointment calendars.
More Casanova than Romeo, this fellow. “You had me at the sweatshirt”, says the young lady.
Karen’s choice for my next pair of shoes.
Karen makes a friend — Italian style.
A two-scoop Gelato for a weary tourist (even though he doesn’t look like a tourist at all).
We end this post with our highlight of the day.
We were sitting on the stairs of a church eating our lunch of bread and cheese when a ball that some little kids were playing with came rolling up by our feet. The young man in this photo came over to pick up the ball and throw it back to the kids. Our eyes met and we said hello to each other. He asked where we were from and when we told him the U.S. he got very excited and started asking us questions.
Marco told us he was 10 years old and he was in Verona for the day with his mom (who was standing about 20 yards away while we talked). We complimented him on his English skills. He thanked us and said he studies hard and is one of the best English speakers in his grade — and he’s obviously proud of that. He was so fun to talk to, and was clearly enjoying the conversation as much as we were.
We motioned for his mom to come and join us. Her English was limited, but (as we always do) we told her that her English is far, far better than our Italian. Marco told us all about his school, his friends and the small town he lives in about an hour’s drive away. He asked us about the U.S. and and our families and what kind of jobs we did.
He wants to visit the U.S. some day and see the Grand Canyon, New York City, and Disney World. Our 20 minutes with Marco and his mom will always be in our memories and our hearts. A chance conversation with a wonderful kid and his proud mom because of a stray ball rolling past us is more memorable than anything else we did or saw that day.
Marco’s mom finally told him they had to go home and flashed us a smiling “he could talk to you all day” look. They walked away and we went back to eating our sandwiches and watching the people relaxing and kids playing in the little piazza.
The more we travel, the more we realize that wherever we go, it’s really mostly about the people we meet.