Italy Part 1: Verona

After we left Liechtenstein, we drove southeast through the Alps to Italy. Our first official stop was Verona, but we took the scenic route through Südtirol (Sudtirolo in Italian, South Tyrol in English. Just to keep it confusing). 

 Südtirol is the northernmost province of Italy, which actually speaks German because they were part of the Austria-Hungarian empire until 1915 when it was basically traded to England in exchange for their participation in WWI. Italy annexed it in 1919, Mussolini tried to Italianize it, and now it's in an interesting semi-autonomous state where it keeps 90% of its own taxes but puts a little Italian translation under the German names on street signs. In true Alps style, there's a native-type language that nobody but twelve people in this one valley can understand. Also, it's where pretty much every apple in Europe is grown! Which is probably why people wanted it so much. Regardless of all that, it's a very scenic drive.

 

They dammed a river to make a lake, which--as it usually does--put a town underwater. 

Since the church was all historic, they just left it! Now it sticks out of the water. 

I simultaneously want to learn how to scuba dive and want to NEVER GET IN THE WATER.

When we got to Verona, we experienced our very first old-style Italian metropolis! We decided to really experience it by following Google's directions and making Martin drive our big VW van (modern, don't start thinking Mystery Machine thoughts) straight into the narrow-streeted heart of the city. Where we're pretty sure we weren't allowed to be anyway. After the city's one-way streets, pedestrian-only plazas, and mirror-foldingly narrow "streets" released us, we found parking across the river and, reformed, walked to our accommodations.

 

Verona! Not for driving.

We stayed in an apartment-turned-B&B smack in the heart of the city next to Juliet's house. Shakespeare set Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and Two Gentlemen of Verona in the city, so a few hundred years ago they decided to cash in and create tourist attractions based on the fictional characters. It's all a little murky, though, because a tourist attraction set up in the 17th century and made out of the Capulets' actual house (built in the 1200s), a balcony that they themselves added (purportedly fashioned from an old stone sarcophagus!) and covered in graffitied love notes dating from the publication of the play is historical, but it's all based on a fictional character. So...historical? We stopped there briefly on our way to dinner the first night.

 

Look! A church!

Every city in Italy seems to have its own cuisine, and Verona is no exception. They're not the spaghetti-and-meatballs types, either. Veronese food involves lots of meat (mostly of odd animals like horses, donkeys, and ducks) and some German influences like schnitzel (which, by the way, is veal pounded out so it's giant but flat, then breaded and fried. Think a dinnerplate-sized fishstick made of beef. But not gross like that sounds). We had a delicious and biologically diverse dinner in the restaurant our landlady recommended, then headed home because it was already quite late.

In the morning I went running around the city, then we set out exploring. First stop was the ancient Arena, a coliseum-type structure built by the Romans in the year 30. It seats 30,000 people, and it's mostly intact so it's used today for concerts, plays, and an annual summer-long opera season that always features Romeo and Juliet. It was fun exploring the ancient building, and we only got yelled at a little bit for going places we weren't supposed to be.

The Arena, all set up for opera season.

Part of the ancient wall that surrounded the Arena.

For the rest of the day, we walked all over Verona, checked out every major church, and scoped out the best gelato in town--a mission that would persist throughout the trip. Late in the afternoon we crossed the river and hiked up an interesting set of stairs (gelato in hand) until we found a castle! Gotta love Europe. From there we followed another trail that eventually led between two sets of ancient city walls, aiming for a cool complex of buildings we had seen from the castle. Just as we got about as far as possible from any exit to our path, it started pouring like crazy. Two local women found us and shepherded us down from the hill on the quickest route, then gave us recommendations for the rest of our trip, told us where to eat dinner, and even made our reservation! After we'd changed and dried off, it was delicious.

All of us at the castle, pre-rainstorm.

The next morning I ran back up to the hill and did eventually make it to the buildings we'd wanted to see (a monastery), but the way we got down was definitely faster. 

Next stop: Venice!

Love Katie