Verona. A Beautiful City.

Now that we’ve settled in and had a chance to explore the place, we thought perhaps we should update you on life in Verona. Yes, despite any impressions from my last post it seems there is more to Italy than crazy roads.

What an amazing place. You can’t go two steps anywhere in the town centre without stumbling over something beautiful or ancient or both. The entire town centre is alive with history.

The town is surrounded by a river acting as a kind of moat and fortified walls remain in many places. Some partially rebuilt after earthquakes, wars and age took their toll.

The pavement is even interesting (maybe just to me)? It is either cobbles or pink and white marble – often with prehistoric fossils visible in its surface. The marble is lovely to roll on and despite all the warnings the cobbles have been mostly a breeze in the chair as they are so close together. The pebble cobbles suck but thankfully they are very rare.

The melding of the old with the new is seen all around. Above you can see a block from a some old Roman building blocked into the corner of a shop front, as well as an old Roman archway that bridges one of the city streets. Every now and then you can see four metres below the current level of the city to old Roman baths etc.

In the Piazza Erbe you can see in one view over 2000 years of history from a Roman fountain to a 12th C clock tower to 14th C buildings, Gothic and everything in between with a brand new development currently underway.

There are churches everywhere. One per family I think. The one above is St Anastasia. Below is a blurry shot of its clock tower;

This kind of detail is on every square inch of Duomo Church (sorry – blurry again);

Inside the churches (more blurry images – I’m letting Clare take the photos from now on);

It seems that ancient beauty is such a common commodity over here that it doesn’t get quite the same respect that it might if it were found in Australia (where a two hundred year old building is worthy of a plaque and a viewing platform). Below is a photo of the ‘ancient’ Teatro Romano;

I think I’ve talked enough now so here are the rest of the images;

(gardens)

(Castelveccio – 14th Century castle)

Apart from all that we are both well. Both our bumps are still getting bigger. We are looking forward to some new English speaking company and are planning a few upcoming trips. We both have Italian mobiles now so call us any time, it’s your dime and we’d love to hear from you.

Simon