We spent 4 days in Venice, and while we were there, some of us did a quick trip to Verona and back for the afternoon. We caught the train there (about 90 min), walked around the beautiful city, and then caught the train back.
Why Verona?
Verona is a really lovely city. I think when the sun is shining it must be a lovely place to hang out and people watch from a cafe. There's an old Roman arena that's in great shape and still hosts opera performances on summer evenings. There are beautiful buildings, gardens, bridges, and a wonderful castle.
But my big reason for going there was because of Shakespeare. Shakepeare wrote two plays that I'm familiar with that have Verona as the setting. Romeo and Juliet and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Shakespeare himself lived in England and never even traveled to Italy. Both plays were fictional stories that may have been based loosely on a few things (the setting of the town, two rival noble families). So the idea that you can go and visit Romeo's house or Juliet's house and her balcony, or her crypt is kind of silly. I haven't seen the movie Letters to Juliet and I don't know the specific scenes or locations of movies of Romeo and Juliet. But I wanted to go and check it all out anyway.
The weather was pretty chilly while we were there, but thankfully it didn't rain. Juliet's house and her statue were very crowded with tourists but I joined in and had my photo with her and gently touched her right breast for good luck. We saw some of the main sights and then we headed back.
I'm glad we went, even if we didn't have great weather or time to really stay and enjoy the town.
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