Verona in Love

  "There is no world without Verona walls, but purgatory, torture, hell itself. Hence banished is banish'd from the world, and world's exile is death...." (Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet", Act III, scene III).

Verona, Italy:
Last week, we went to Verona for my birthday. I know, Tyson is the best. I've always been a huge fan of Shakespeare and three of his plays take place in Verona: Romeo & Juliet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Taming of the Shrew. I loved seeing this beautiful city and all of the history it has to offer.

Verona in Love Festival:
Starting around Valentine's Day, Verona has a 5 day festival celebrating love. They have street vendors selling every kind of chocolate you can imagine: fudge, truffles, brownies, and much more.

Verona in Love Festival

Heart decorations for the festival

 

 

 

 

Via Mazzini (main shopping street)

Street vendors selling chocolate

Delicious, melty chocolate 

The festival also has fun events like concerts and activities with a love theme.

There's a little me in that heart

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food:
No, we didn't survive on chocolate alone, no matter how cool that would be. The first night, we tried a place called La Costa in Bra; I would recommend it.

Parma Ham appetizer

Tortellini

Margherita pizza with an olive

 My favorite thing was the parma ham, but the tortellini was very good, too. Tyson enjoyed his pizza and gave me his olive since he doesn't like them. I could only take one bite of the olive because for some reason it was 50 times saltier than any olive I've had before. You might think that would be a good thing, but it wasn't.

We did go to another fantastic restaurant while we were there called Ristorante Greppia, but I didn't take any pictures. I just wanted to enjoy the food. They have amazing steaks and chocolate mousse there. I would highly recommend checking out Greppia, it was suggested to us by our hotel.

Romeo & Juliet:
One of the first things we did was visit Juliet's balcony. You enter by way of a tunnel that is covered in lovers' graffiti. Unfortunately, there is now a fine for leaving graffiti behind, so we just looked.

Graffiti near Juliet's Balcony

After that, I bought a ticket to go through the R&J museum and Tyson stayed in the courtyard so he could take a picture of me on Juliet's balcony (thanks Ty!). Tickets were only 1 euro because of the festival.

Juliet's Balcony

Juliet's Statue (Rub her right breast for luck in love)

Lovers write their names on locks and put them here

Juliet's Dress from 1968 movie (Zeffreli)

Romeo's Outfit from 1968 movie

The bed from R&J movie

Star-crossed lovers

After the museum, we went to see Juliet's Tomb. We got to see a couple getting married at Juliet's Tomb while we were there! I'm not sure if that's the best idea or the worst idea? I do love tragic love stories, though.

"A grave? O, no, a lantern...for here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes this vault a feasting presence, full of light." (Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet", Act V, Scene III).

Juliet's Tomb

Plaques depicting story of R&J

Chinese version of Romeo & Juliet

Sights in Verona:

The Lamberti Tower is found in Piazza delle Erbe and it dates back to the 12th century. The tower was built to alert citizens to fires or as a call to arms. You can climb to the top of the tower (or take an elevator), which we didn't end up doing on this trip.

Lamberti Tower

Santa Anastasia Church

The Duomo Cathedral

Verona Arena (in Piazza Bra)

The Palazzo Barbieri (Town Hall)

Piazza delle Erbe

 

Thanks for reading, everyone! The next blog will feature Bolzano (Bozen), Italy!

1. "Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say goodnight till it be morrow" (Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet, Act II, Scene II).