On to Verona

by backpackingbill

I looked it up, “Romeo and Juliet” is based on a true happening. I will find out more when we get there. In the meantime, we need to get there. Taxi to the bottom of the hill then figure out whether to take the bus or the ferry. Although this part of the trip will be a challenge, I am certain that it will make a good story.

  • There is more to the story: According to our guide on the bicycle tour of Verona, the original story was a fabrication. A second version of the story was used by Shakespeare for the play. There was a family with a name like Capulet that lived in Verona. Their house is the one that is identified as Juliet’s. The balcony was added later. Originally the play didn’t have a balcony; a later set added the balcony for greater dramatic effect. – Oh well, it’s still a good story.
  • There is a statue of Juliet under the balcony of the Capulet house. We were universally disgusted that people were lining up for a photo with their hand on Juliet’s boob. Our guide on the bicycle tour said that it is considered good luck to touch Juliet’s boob.

And a good story it is. The taxi that picked us up at the Varenna B+B was going to pick up a couple going to Lecco, our destination. So, we decided to tag along as the taxi was a van. Good thing we did. The ferry that we were going to take was cancelled; likewise the bus that was the alternative. We would have had to take an alternative ferry across the lake and change trains twice to get to Lecco. We would have been very late.

We changed trains in Milan, so I took a photo of the train station as promised.

We took the high speed train to Verona and met Jim.

Verona is a lovely city.

A lot of old Roman stuff

Walked around the Roman Coliseum, the one here is older than the one in Rome but, smaller. They do a lot of concerts and operas here.

Note: This is not a Coliseum, there is only one and it is in Rome. This is an arena.

Went to the Juliet house to see the balcony.

“What light from yonder window breaks, tis the east and Juliet is the sun” or, maybe it’s the girl with bright red hair.

We had dinner at a typical Italian place that Jim picked out. Tina and I had a regional favorite, cod in a cream sauce with polenta. Jim had horse with polenta. Over two hours to eat dinner – really Italian in all respects.

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