O Verona

Well I made it to Verona and back – notwithstanding the train difficulties Friday morning.

And –in an amusing continuation to the saga, on my way home the train between Milan and Ventimiglia stopped.

Just stopped.

For about half an hour.

And then a voice came on and helpfully announced that there was a problem.

Yeah, no shit. I’m not a genius engineer, but I’m pretty sure trains are meant to, i dunno, move. Then, another half an hour later they announced that the “locomotor was broken. But they were fixing it.” Hilarious. (This was all translated for me by a helpful girl in my cabin.)

Luckily I had the world’s hardest to read book with me to keep myself occupied and – 9 hours later, I made it back home.

On that side note – I think I’m going to have to give up on ‘The Kindly Ones’ – it is sooo dense and heavy and hard-going. I’ve given it a red-hot go and I’m still only half way through it! Ridiculous! Admittedly I have read a few other books in between (Charlotte Roche’s ‘Wetlands’ – sent over from Hels, disturbing, rude, gross and sad. ‘Escaping’ lent to me by friend Marie, sad, funny and uplifting – a true story about a woman who eventually runs B&Bs in Provence. Dawkins ‘The God Delusion’ recommended by M and read as part of our fiction/non-fiction swap thing we are doing – he has read Tim Winton’s ‘Breath’, McEwan’s ‘Saturday’ and is now reading Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Miserables’!! Colour me impressed!) I also re-read ‘Deathly Hallows’ and ‘Breaking Dawn’ ....both for about the 4th time...... But anyway – am putting nasty Nazis and death and German Obersturmbannfuhrers away for a bit.

Back to Verona.

Had such a brilliant time. Kate’s hotel was just near the train station and a 15-20 min walk to the heart of the city. Verona is so pretty and we were blessed with amazing weather for the weekend after a bit of drizzle on the Friday.

I did all the touristy things: The Arena, Juliet’s “house”, the famous church San Zeno Maggiore, the Piazzas, the Castelvecchio fort and museum, walked around the old town, ate lots of gelati, and drank plenty of Prosecco (Italian champagne) and red wine.

We also had some of the most delicious meals ever. EVER On Friday night we went to a gorgeous little place called “Antica Bottega Del Vino” – Kate had been before and not only is the food delicious ( I had Ravioli della casa – amazingly delicious and then meat braised in Amarone – which is the local red wine, with polenta for main and Tirimisu for dessert ...yuuum) but they are renowned for their wine collection and the lovely waiter offered to show us their cellar where there are over 35,000 bottles of wine – including a pretty impressive collection of Penfold Granges and a Cognac worth €50,000!!It was an absolutely divine meal – and the $20 a glass red was pretty tasty too!! (Damn that Euro conversion rate...it hurts!)

On Saturday night we went to “Il Cenacolo” which has no menu, just a degustation with wine included and most of the food is cooked on an open fire that is in the middle of the restaurant – way cool. We ate: Bruschetta bread with prosciutto, roasted vegetables, polenta with gorgonzola, fried buffalo mozzarella with cherry tomatoes, basil and peppers, the BEST risotto e funghi with truffles I’ve ever tasted, homemade ravioli and THEN they served a mixed grill plate (sausage, pork, lamb, chicken, meat on a stick) and THEN some roast lamb and potatoes. And THEN we got to decide what we wanted off the dessert cart, then offered coffee and biscuits. Kate and I were too full to really touch the meat platter or roast lamb/potatoes – which we knew would kill M if he knew about it, but we were both full to bursting. Although we did manage to fit in a very small serve each of tiramisu, but as everyone knows, dessert goes to a different place in your tummy! We were both literally groaning as we waddled home. Gluttony. It’s a killer.

All in all, it was a great 3 days, we had so much fun and I really enjoyed seeing Verona and all the well dressed Italians and all the less well dressed tourists (so much sneakers and jeans *shudder* why won’t people LEARN, buy some flats or trainers but leave the sports sneakers in your gym bag people!!) on that rant – it really annoys me that SOOO many tourists don’t even learn the very basic Italian words – like grazie and per favour, si, no, mi scusi – it aint hard, it’s not like Chinese or Greek or Russian! It’s the same alphabet! At so many cafes and restaurants British tourists would only speak in English – even at Gelati shops – where the sign says “caffe” or “limone” – they’d say “coffee and lemon” – for goodness sake! It really got to me! I don’t speak Italian, but i learnt a little and tried! Therefore I am awesome and all these other people are cretins. Clearly.

To Kate - thank you for letting me stay and for bringing my bag of summer clothes (yay) and the TimTams and Haighs (double Yay – the ChocApricots didn’t survive the train ride home. Sorry M!) Can’t wait to see you in Croatia in August!

Verona is awesome.

Katie!

Drinking Prosecco - delicious!

Visiting the wine cellar - amazing!

Delicious dinner

The Arena

Piazza Bra

Castelvecchio Museum

Me, squinty girl, up on the wall of the Castelvecchio

Castelvecchio

I love books, and this shop was cool.

The inside of the Arena. Less 'Gladiator death match' nowadays, more Carmen and Turandot - and rock concerts.

Inside the Arena. Slightly more Gladiator-y.

Casa di Giulietta - Juliet's House. Totally bogus, historically (the balcony was added in the 1930s!) but interesting enough.

Basillica Di San Zeno. Couldn't go in past the cloisters as it was a Sunday and people were there for a service. Highly inconvienient. Didn't they realise there were tourists who wanted to take photos? sheesh.

Off to Paris on Friday morning to meet up with Holly, Lovers, Leisa and COCO!! Can't wait.

TTFN.