An Alpine Adventure — Verona 🇮🇹 (Part 2/3)
This post is the continuation of a 3-part series “An Alpine Adventure”. Check out the first post here!
“Verona is a somewhat small Italian city that we’ll visit on our way back to Villach.” — This is all I had gathered until we actually started nearing the place on the day of our journey. Little did I know that it was the literary home of Shakespeare’s famous Romeo and Juliet! Right from the moment we entered its vicinity, it had the vibe of a small town — no skyscrapers, no traffic jams and a mix of mostly old and some new buildings.
We weren’t welcomed with the best weather but that didn’t stop us from walking around to get a whiff of what Verona was all about. We parked our car near the Arena — a preserved Roman amphitheater that is today used for various events, and took to the street Via Anfiteatro northbound.
As we walked along the narrow cobbled roads, we could see traditional Italian homes all around us. While the ground floor of these buildings was often lined up with modern restaurants and shops, the floors above them looked traditional and almost archaic, and yet well maintained.
We eventually got to Casa de Julieta, which means ‘Juliet’s House’, and hustled our way past the hundred odd tourists cramped up in the small courtyard below Juliet’s balcony.
The first thing I noticed there was the vandalism — chewing gums stuck all over the entrance arch and notes scribbled with permanent marker all over the walls leading to the house. This is apparently a big problem that the authorities are dealing with, and there are huge fines if you are caught in the act.
We were not so keen on paying money to actually walk up onto the balcony (because the only sight you’d have from there is of the tops of a hundred heads anyway). Just walking in the courtyard and seeing the balcony from below and the bronze statue of Juliet seemed enough, and is free of cost to do. It did feel like the kind of place that people spend not more than 10 minutes at, and do it just so they can tick a checkbox on their travel itinerary.
It only seemed natural to head to Casa di Romeo (Romeo’s house) next — which is unsurprisingly just a couple of blocks away. However, this is not a tourist site! The house is currently occupied by a family and it is literally just another house in the block. There is a thick fence and video surveillance setup to make sure the family living there gets the privacy that might otherwise be tough for them to find in such a location.
Finally we arrived at the main market square of the city, again full of ancient buildings and statues. There was a flea market, and there were a lot of vendors selling local produce like fruits and cheese. We grabbed a cup of assorted fruits to munch on as we had a closer look at the many statues around us. Many of them seemed to be of Dante, a prominent Italian poet from the 14th century.
We walked back towards the amphitheater, past a small garden with a fountain as we headed back to our car. Verona had been a relaxing stopover on our road trip, and we were all set to head to the next stop on our trip just a bit further up from Verona… Venezia!
