Beautiful Verona: A Weekend Stopover That Resulted in a New Love

"Pleasant Verona! With its beautiful old palaces, and charming country in the distance, seen from terrace walks, and stately, balustraded galleries. With its Roman gates, still spanning the fair street, and casting, on the sunlight of today, the shade of fifteen hundred years ago. With its marble-fitted churches, lofty towers, rich architecture, and quaint old quiet thoroughfares, where shouts of Montagues and Capulets once resounded." - Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy

Having said goodbye to the UK and all our friends we boarded our plane to Verona and began the next leg of our journey, in search of a white Christmas. We decided on Verona as our first stop for two simple reasons, we found a cheap flight with British Airways, well in advance, that left at a respectable time in the afternoon, rather than the cheap and cheerful airline with whom we could have traveled directly to Austria at the crack of dawn for the same price. Secondly we love scenic train journeys and travelling via Verona gave us the opportunity to journey through the Alto Adage and through the spectacular Brennan Pass.

We have been so very lucky on our travels and if we have had mishaps they are few and slight and today we faced one of these. Sitting on board our plane, after substantial delays resulting from a strike in Italy, which is simply to be expected, just after pushing back from the terminal we had a friendly announcement from our pilot . Apparently just as we had been allocated a slot to take off, simultaneously to pushing back, the Flight Data Computer Server at London Air traffic control went down and runways at Gatwick and Heathrow were closed and flights grounded. 

We were told if we stayed put on the plane, which he went and parked somewhere our near the runway, we would been given priority over those parked at the gate and those poor people waiting in the terminals. We were told it could be a very long wait but we decided to make the most of our time and chatted with people nearby and we even looked after a lovely baby in the next row to give his mum a break. Luckily it was only an hour or so later that we received the good news that the computer was up and running and we would be the fifth plane to take off from Gatwick. We were thanking our lucky stars as a huge number of flights were delayed or cancelled and we were in beautiful Verona.

In keeping with this stage of our holiday I had done no research whatsoever and with two full days in Verona and a guidebook downloaded from the library onto my iPad we planned two days as follows, one day walking the streets of Verona and just soaking it all in and one day at Gardaland, Italy's answer to Disney as we thought it was about time the kids enjoy some kid time without cultural or educational value, just good fun.

We were delighted with Verona, one of those lovely quintessential art cities of Italy, perfect for strolling, with wonderful food, markets, roman ruins, churches and galleries to visit. We were very lucky to have found a fabulous apartment a few minutes walk from the Roman Arena (VRBO #512485) with plenty of room for us and a lovely kitchen. However as this was to be our last visit to Italy the kitchen didn't get any use as we wanted to take advantage of the wonderful local food. With such a handy base and no preconceived ideas about what we had to see we found Verona easy to navigate, just wander and you are sure to find wonderful sights.

We woke on Saturday morning, the feast of Santa Lucia,  and set off arriving first at the Roman Arena, with it incredible shoot star of Bethlehem. In the piazza before the Arena, Piazza Bra, the Bancheti de Santa Lusia (the traditional markets for the day of Santa Lucia) were in full swing. The kids had been thrilled that morning to find that, like the local kids, their shoes had been filled with chocolate by  Santa Lucia who brings Christmas presents during the night between the 12th and 13th of December, riding on a flying donkey.

We started out by trying the fabulous rolls stuffed with sliced meat or sausage topped with eggplant, onions, capsicums, zucchinis, mushrooms and more. And so loaded up with enough food in one roll to cover lunch as well as breakfast we enjoyed looking at at the terrific market stalls. While there was the usual tat there was also lovely leather goods, woodwork and other artisan pieces. There was also a beautiful carousel which the kids never could just admire and walk past.

Our next stop was the Arena, which Julian was very keen to visit as he was pretty much over Christmas markets by this stage, and oh boy did we have more to come in Austria. We picked up a Verona Card for Rob and I as it gave us free public transport and entry into the Arena and Juliette's House. 

 The Arena is one of those terrific places for kids, where you can both sit and talk about the history with them and also let them run wild and explore. And explore they did, walking all across the arena floor, staging mock battles, writing their names with sticks into the sand, climbing up and down the steps and finally heading right the way around the top level. This level offered us views of Verona's surroundings reminiscent of the sfumato style of painting practiced by Leonardo da Vinci, as well as a birds eye view of the market.

Not surprisingly the kids complained of being hungry after all this exercise, and so we just had to try the Fritule, expecting something like the small Dalamatian doughnuts of the same name we like so much and receiving instead huge pizza like pastries covered in sugar or smothered in Nutella.

We then followed the crowd down the via Giuseppe Mazzini, a lovely street good for strolling and window shopping and made our way to the Casa di Giulietta. 

 Every available space of wall outside "Juliette's house" has been plastered with love notes, stuck on with everything from chewing gum to band aids, which we all found hilariously gross. While the alley and courtyard, below the famed balcony, were very crowded the house itself was quiet and peaceful, and lovely refuge on a freezing cold day.

It gave us a giggle to hear many of the other visitors ask each other if this is the house that "Juliette really lived in or just similar to her house". Even Emma at age nine thought this funny as Juliette is a fictional character and never lived anywhere but it was a lovely renovated house from the period in which Shakespeare set his play.

We had a giggle at the very serious security guard who seemed to be keeping a very close eye on us, it must have had something to do with the fact that ours were the only kids to be seen. Luckily they were on their best behaviour. We even we able to go out on the balcony and embarrass the children by spouting our "Romeo Romeo wherefore art though's" much to their intense chagrin.

We next moved onto Piazza Delle Erbe which was filled with market stalls, though a sudden downpour had us seeking refuge in a cafe right at afternoon tea time. I would have really liked to see the Church of San Zeno Maggiore and with this plan in mind we set out at a fast clip as soon as the rain let up with the plan being to walk up Corso Porta Borsari and catch a bus from Corso Cavour. A great plan as it gave us the opportunity to see the Porta dei Borsari but unfortunately the bus timetables showed we would not make it to the Basilica until practically closing time.

And so we decided to catch a bus to the other side of the river as we had been told the views from the hill behind the Teatro Romano are priceless. Again our best laid plans went astray as the sun set within minutes of boarding the bus and it was so dark we couldn't even see the Teatro, let alone the amazing view of the beautiful medieval bridges. In fact we missed the bus stop and just decided to jump off and cross the first bridge we came across as Verona is so easy to navigate we were soon near to home and of course a good meal on the way.

There is so much to see in Verona, a city we have only seen a tantalising glimpse of, fallen in love with and we want to see much more of. It really goes to show that the slow travel principles we have attempted to travel by (staying at least 5-7 days in each place) are valid. What a lovely excuse for a return visit when we return again to our home in Croatia. However a promise is a promise and so off to Gardaland we went and it was a simple bus, train and shuttle bus ride from Verona.

It closes for the winter season but opens for a few weekends near Christmas at it was a very affordable and incredibly fun day out.

The kids went on everything except one roller coaster which Rob too tall to go on, Julian was too short, I was too scared and Emma didn't want to go alone. They did all go twice on one roller coaster (pic below) that went upside down a number of times, I know who the kids take after and its not me.

We loved that the kids could go on as many rides as they liked, as many times as they liked and without any sort of queue. In summer the price is higher and from what I have read the queues can be horrendous but winter in Gardaland is fantastic. 

Back home now in Australia when the children are asked by everyone we meet "where was your favourite place", a question that they find quite overwhelming, all I need to do is raise my eyebrows at them and they yell "GARDALAND" though there are many other favourites in there too.