Visiting Verona

On Monday, July 16, we hopped on a train from Bologna to Verona to visit the city Shakespeare helped make famous with Romeo & Juliet. Verona has a lot more to offer than an old balcony surrounded by tourists, including a tower to climb, quaint piazzas, a Roman arena, a classic castle and bridge, and superb pizza. Truth be told, we skipped the over-crowded balcony, which of course is as fictional as the characters that made it famous since Shakespeare was never actually in Verona!

History is everywhere in Italy and Verona is no exception. Sitting in the middle of the historic center is an ancient Roman Arena (coliseum).

Built in 30 AD, it still hosts major events, including an opera festival each summer. Check out the opera props waiting for use outside in the surrounding plaza.

We didn’t make it inside the Arena because they were setting up for Lenny Kravitz to perform that night. Nice place for opera and rock ‘n roll.

I can’t resist climbing a tower to see the views, so we headed up Torre dei Lamberti, which sits in the central Piazza delle Erbe. We were surprised to see that this tower has an elevator . . . but we took the 368 stairs to work off some of the pizza and gelato calories.

The Castle Vechhio and Ponte di Castle Vechhio protected the city for many years. At the time of its construction, the bridge was the longest of its kind in the world.

While we enjoyed Verona’s architecture and charm a lot, what we may have enjoyed the most was the pizza at Sapore Downtown. Pizza comes in many forms  in Italy and Sapore’s take was modern and stylish. We loved it.

Let’s face it, Italy is all about the food and the passion for food. You won’t be surprised to hear that we’ve been very passionate about the food here. More food related posts to come.

Ciao,

Shana & Jeff