Good morning, everyone,
Yes, Susan and I are in Verona. On Tuesday, we flew from home to Rome, then caught a train and came directly to Verona. It made a very long day for us, but we slept well that night.
Yesterday was beautiful ..sunny, a bit humid. We took a bus up to Lake Garda, about an hour and a half ride from Verona. We had not been there before, so we wanted to see it. Garda is a beautiful town, with a lovely lakefront area. We walked along the lake, through a park, down to the beach. The lake itself was getting a bit choppy, so we did not go Into the water. We had lunch at a lakeside cafe, wandered some more through the shopping area, and returned to Verona.
We had tickets to see Placido Domingo in concert last night. After relaxing for awhile, got ourselves cleaned up, and went in search of dinner. We didn’t have to go far, as there are restaurants everywhere. We chose one that is actually in a wine shop. Pretty cool, and the food was good, very reasonably priced, so we will go there again tonight. Good fresh food, organic produce, wonderful mozzarella. A bottle of wine with dinner costs less than buying a bottle to take home.
The concert was held in the Arena, which is an ancient Roman amphitheater, similar to the Colosseum in Rome. The musicians and singers use no sound system or amplification, relying on the acoustics of the theater for the music to project. I was so thrilled to actually be able to hear and see this great performer. Yes! There he was, on stage, and that marvelous voice. Incredible.
The concert had started at 10:00 p.m. (Quite late for us, but typical for here.). About an hour into the performance, we started to see some lightning flashes in the distance. At 11:30, there was an intermission, and during that time, the lightning came closer and it started to rain. Th members of the orchestra picked up there instruments and left the stage. Many of the spectators bought rain ponchos, and stayed, hoping the show would go on. We left, as the rain was coming down harder.
We came back here, opened our door to our little patio, opened a bottle of wine, and enjoyed the light show for awhile. It did cool things off for a bit, so again we slept well. Today is sunny and beautiful again.
Today we are just going to stay in Verona, and check out some of the sights here. Tonight we are seeing the opera, “Carmen”, at the Arena. We will pray for no lightning and rain tonight.
We leave tomorrow morning for Montepulciano. We should get there about 1:00, get settled into our apartment, where we will live for the next four weeks. We start our Italian language classes on Monday. That should be interesting. I am so happy to be back in Italy, listening to the people speaking this beautiful language. I want to be able to converse in this language. I am finding that some of what I had learned at home is coming back to me. Hopefully, the classes in Montepulciano will reinforce and expand what I already have tucked somewhere in the recesses of this old brain.
The question has come up about where we are, geographically. So I am going to post a picture of a map here now. The red line is our first day, from Rome to Verona. The green line is where we are going tomorrow. Montepulciano. This hill town is southwest of Siena, still in Tuscany, but very close to Umbria. I believe the elevation there is about 5,000 feet above sea level. We are hoping there will be nice breezes.
I will try to add lines as we go, so everyone can track us.
Today we walked through The old part of Verona, along the river. It is still pretty warm, but not as humid as yesterday. We are back at the B&B now, resting, then packing to leave in the morning..then shower, go to dinner and the Opera.
A view of the castle on the hillside and the Fiume Adige. Yes, the same river we saw in Bolzano when we were there on previous trips. You might also remember Alto Adige, as the area around the Dolomites, and a famous wine country. Ahhh..the Dolomites! Can’t wait to be there, but I have to wait until September.
So, I need to get busy. I will write more from Montepulciano.
–Dolly
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