Verona, Italy

Emily Halling
Feb 15, 2019
5 min read

Tuesday 12th February

We left Geneva bright and early, well not bright, it was still dark, the bright came later. We very quietly packed our lunch, and gathered our bags and our wonderful home owner very kindly dropped us to the bus station.

The bus was great, very comfortable and I may or may not have taken a long nap.

We passed through two border controls, the French and the Italian, and each time military and police would stand around the bus while it was boarded and our passports taken to be checked, before being returned to us.

We were also lucky enough that our route took us through the Mont Blanc tunnel, straight through the mountain!

Seven hours, two border crossings, and a few donkeys later we arrived in Verona!!

We made the short walk to our accommodation and (eventually) figured out how to get in.

We stayed at a gorgeous little B&B with a shared kitchen with access to snacks and complimentary breakfast, shared bathroom and an amazing room. The location was absolutely perfect, a few streets out of the main centre and the river.

We wandered into the main square and saw the arena which was beautiful and had a little walk around as the sun was setting. The arena was really cool, and as part of the "Verona in Love" festival that was on at the moment there was a hot air ballon that went up and sat up above the arena (on ropes) and then came back down.

We then found a little authentic pizza place called Gusto's where the owner was super friendly and between us trying our best in Italian, him trying his best in English and a lot of hand gestures we ordered some pizzas to take back and have in our B&B. These pizzas were INCREDIBLE! Honestly probably one of the best pizzas we've ever had.

Wednesday 13th February

We set out after a nice breakfast to explore Verona!

We took ourselves on a self guided walking tour for the day with the help of Google Day Plans.

We started off at the Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore, a gorgeous basilica with amazing architecture, and also said to be the place of marriage for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The fantastic part about visiting these places in winter is that there was no one else there, we had it all to ourselves!

We had a beautiful walk along the river to the second stop, Castelvecchio, an important military castle by the Adige River in the 13th and 14th centuries.

We then walked over the Castelvecchio bridge. The architecture and atmosphere was great with a street performer playing the guitar!

I think what is also astounding about the Italian architecture is not just the scale of the buildings, but the fact that they're made out of ordinary sized bricks. It just makes them seem that much larger. When you think about how many individual bricks that were laid, the effort and labour that went into the buildings that long ago, and the fact that they are still standing is amazing.

It was a beautiful sunny day and there was sort of a pebbly looking beach/river bed by the river that people could walk down to so we clambered down and skimmed stones on the water for a while, soaking up the warmth of the sun.

From here we trekked our way out of the city a bit and up a big hill to San Leonardos Fortress. The walk up was beautiful through the back streets of Verona was beautiful.

San Leonardos Fortress is a very beautiful church with impeccable grounds. It is a silent area up at the church and we were the only people up there and started to wonder if we were even allowed to be there!

The church was stunning, as was the view from the top. The vantage point from being up on the hill gave us amazing views over Verona.

We strolled across the Ponte Pietra which was beautiful all around, and there was an amazing pianist playing a grand piano right there in the middle of the bridge!

Following that, we went and saw Verona Cathedral which was stunning, and again we were the only people there!

Just on the corner of the street opposite the cathedral, we found a really cute little cafe/ restaurant that we popped into for lunch. It was so cute inside and had a lovely little courtyard with climbing vines and little birds jumping across them and frolicking in the water fountain. It felt so classically Italian. We both ordered a different panini and then shared them and they were so scrumptious and exactly what we were after!

From lunch we wandered the narrow streets to Juliet's balcony!

Well, we found all the tourists! It seems everyone was super keen on seeing Juliet's balcony as well! It cleared out a little and we managed to go through to the courtyard and see the balcony, and the walls of the courtyard filled with love notes and letters to Juliet, it was really really cool!

There was also the statue of Juliet, and the story is that if you touch her right breast you get good luck.

As you walk into the courtyard there are two walls that you are able to write on, so of course we did!

It's a really cool place with a really cute vibe. There was also a sewing store that embroiders your name onto aprons and towels and things like that. Well a lady conducting a demonstration called out to me and made me a free sample!

From here we went to the Church Santa Anastasia. The architecture and the paintings were magnificent as all Italian churches are.

Then we ended up in the main square, Piazza dei Signori, where "Verona in Love" markets were taking place. We continued walking around to the Torre dei Lamberti, a tall tower, and in the courtyard below it, is another section of the markets shaped in a love heart!

Within the markets there is also a maze made with trees/ shrubs in pot plants! It was so cute, and in the centre of the maze was a little makeshift balcony like Juliet's!

After we found our way out of the maze we treated our selves to a gelato, I had the hazelnut scoop, and Sam had the mango. OMG it was amazinggggg, no one does ice cream like the Italians, that's for sure.

We continued to wander around the markets in the Osteria Sottocosta plaza with our ice cream and then made our way over to Porta Borsari, an arched limestone gate that once served as the main entrance to the city of Verona. Funnily enough when we were walking around last night, we took pictures of this because of how intriguing we found it from a photographic point of view without realising what it was!