Day 20: 16 July 2010

  

Lisa was off today so we decided to take the short 30 min. drive to Verona.  Like many of the cities we’ve been to here, Verona has a pedestrian-only old town, and a modern new town.  As usual, we took Rick Steves’ walking tour through the old walls of Verona, past the Roman arena (a smaller version of the Colesseum), walked by some churches and piazzas, and by the tombs of the Scaligeri family, a wealthy family who once ruled the city.

The highlight of our trip to Verona was Juliet’s house.  We picked a good day to be here as it was not as crowded as usual.  Walked through a tunnel whose walls were lined with love letters into the courtyard outside Juliet’s house.  The tunnel leads to a small courtyard outside the house that the famous balcony overlooks.  Took a few pictures with the balcony and the bronze statue of Juliet before ending our walk to Ponte Pietra. 

Had a hard time trying to find a place that was open for quick sandwiches at 4pm since lots of places closer in the afternoon for siesta.  Finally found something edible and ate lunch on the cute Piazza Bra.  Topped off the afternoon with a McDonald’s sundae, then headed back towards Montegalda.  Went for a quick trip to the grocery store in Montegalda to pick up a few things for dinner.  Lisa lucked out in that the store around the corner from her house has shelf labels on everything with “no glutine.”

Back at the Hart residence, Lisa cooked a mean spread of meat and spinach and cheese tortellini for us to go with Joe’s tomato & mozzarella salad and Benson’s olive oil dipping sauce.  Enjoyed a relaxing evening eating, chatting, and watching TV, and called it an early night.