A Day Trip to Verona

Saturday was our last full day in Italy and the plan was to flee the increasing madness of Venice and go to Verona instead. Every day it had felt like there were more and more people in Venice and the slow moving stream of people and constantly being stuck behind large groups in narrow alleys had gotten us to a point where we were getting quite stressed by it and needed a break and some space.

We had gotten tickets for the 8:21am train and plenty of time to grab a coffee at the station. Interestingly, coffee at the train station was quite opposite to what we're used to in Britain: it was pretty good and cheaper than in town.

Found our platform and train only to remember we needed to de-validate our tickets. We ran to a ticket office where the guys behind the counter where more interested in chatting to each other until one eventually turned to us with a slightly bored expression.
Something we have experienced a few times during our time here. For a Brit this feels very rude, but at the same time it would be rude to interrupt their talk. So you're stuck there patiently waiting for your turn.
We got told to use one of the machines, asking where those machines could be found, we were told just outside. Ah-huh. Ran outside frantically looking for these things. Rich jumped into another ticket office whilst I kept looking, he had a very similar experience, but at least they told him "platform", so we ran back and finally found the thing, stuck our tickets into it and made our train with 2mins left. Phew.

Just before 10am we arrived in Verona after a somewhat boring journey. Not much in terms of scenery along the way.

The sun was shining, but it was a bit fresh outside as we walked quiet and broad streets towards the city centre, seeing cars for the first time in six days!

Had coffees and ham croissants at a Pasticceria before heading to Piazza Bra with the impressive amphitheatre. Built in the first century it once had room for 30,000 spectators. Today almost everything of the outer ring is gone, but it's still in use for theatre and opera events hosting up to 15,000 people.

A queue was building already so we jumped onto the end and maybe waited for 25mins to get in. Not bad.
The sheer size was really impressive, and for me it put the Colosseum in Rome into perspective. Guessing, I estimated the Colosseum to be at least twice if not three times as big!

Heading West we joined yet another thick stream of people slowly waltzing westwards along a posh shopping street lined with Gucci, Prada and the like. Basically, everything about this was wrong for us, so we escaped at the next opportunity turning left and taking much quieter streets to Piazza delle Erbe.

It had a market on and lovely but faded paintings on most of the buildings around it. There was a distinct flair of an alpine village or town. And to be honest we were not that far off the Alps anyway. Still, I found it quite surprising to find some architectural elements down here.

We went on past the Piazza with a Dante statue and a smal 11th century church that somehow looked like you would maybe imagine a secret little Templar church straight from an Indiana Jones movie, haha.

Had some amazing gelato, probably the best of the whole trip, then walked to the Basilica, yet another monumental sandstone building. Didn't fancy going in, we had had our share of churches.

Walked along the waterfront to Castelvecchio and its brick bridge and back to where we had started this morning. With plenty of time left we chilled in the sun with another coffee and took the 15:21 train back to Venice and its Saturday madness. We were sick of it.

Showers at home and then off to the little Cantina we had been to on our first night and Rich's "Italian dad". Sure enough he remembered us! We had a selection of gorgeous cichetti and shared a bottle of Lugana, a small production wine from the shores of Lake Garda and for once a wine we couldn't find on Majestic! 

Followed by yet another delicious pasta dish and of course dessert. Brilliant finish to an amazing holiday!

Chilled back at the apartment, packed and off to bed for a not too early start on Sunday.