Verona

Before leaving our campsite in the Venice area we cycled down to the beach only 10 minutes away. Glenn wanted to see the top of the Adriatic Sea. There is a nice tent cafe at the end near the lighthouse where we had breakfast of coffee and croissant - me chocolate - Glenn vanilla - yum!

We checked out the lighthouse and the huge number of 4 legged bollards.

We then cycled back to the campsite to pack up and start our homeward bound journey towards the UK where we have to be at the beginning of November. Our first stop is Verona.

We had a nice trip taking the autostrada - not too expensive in Italy to shorten the journey to 2 hours - not 3.5 otherwise.

After a supermarket shop we checked into the Camping Verona Village campsite - a nice new campsite with roads named after operas or composers- we are on the Hansel and Gretel road.

The facilities are nice and spacious and clean. The shower is controlled by a card that gives you a few minutes of hot water - better than having to keep pressing a button to get water.

It was too late to go into town so we made a paella for dinner and relaxed - and later watched a movie.

We had a nice chat to our German neighbours who had gone down the Croatian coast to Greece then back up from the south of Italy. That gives us some ideas for later!

Next morning we got the bus into the centre of historic Verona. We stepped off the bus at Castelvecchio to see a Roman arch, a castle and medieval bridge. The bridge had been constructed as an escape route for the castle if they were invaded. It’s a handy pedestrian bridge now.

We then went into the centre of town to find the Roman arena. It is still being used after 2000 years.

We bought the Verona card which allowed us free entry to many locations.

The first we went to located right where we were was a lapidary museum. Glenn expected precious stones - but it was many Greek and Roman carvings. They were very impressive though! Glenn is imitating the head above him.

I liked the horse tombstone the best.

We then moved onto the arena where we bypassed the long entry line with our Verona Card.

The outer ring of the arena didn’t survive an earthquake in the 1100s - but amazingly the rest did.

The stone seats are each marked with a seat number. People can rent cushions to make it more comfortable.

The arena had been in bad disrepair in the 1800s with people living in it when the town council decided to start using it again. It took them some time to remove 5000 tons of garbage including several dead bodies and get it back into order.

Maria Callas sang here many times after the war making it popular- and then got married and lived nearby. Many big stars then performed here. The more recent ones include Dire Straits, Sting, Simple Minds, Leonard Cohen, Pink Floyd and Bruce Springsteen.

We then went for a quick lunch at a canteen cafe- panini and lasagna - both very good.

We continued checking out the town and found a lovely market square.

We then continued finding the oldest church in Verona -

The sculptures and the paintings were very good - with some famous artists.

We then continued to the river and the Roman theatre on the other side.

The Roman theater hadn’t done as well as the arena, but it is still being used. A church and monastery had been plonked on top of it.

There is now a museum in the monastery containing items from the theatre, arena the monastery and discoveries around the area.

We were quite high up in the monastery so the views of the town were quite spectacular.

The church and cloisters were museum items in themselves - and had Roman mosaics and carvings throughout. This was started in the 1800s so it’s all a bit disorganized.

We then headed back down and across the Roman bridge to the city - repaired with bricks after being bombed in WWII.

We stopped for a drink in the market square - beside the fountain which we found out was 2000 years old from Roman times.

Glenn had a hot chocolate as he was feeling a bit under the weather - and I had an Aperol spritz - which came with a tray of tapas. And my Aperol cost less than the hot chocolate!

We headed home on the bus in a lot of traffic. Rain was predicted so we got back to the van and were nice and cozy eating paella leftovers.