In Fair Verona

Even though I've (shamefully) never read Romeo & Juliet, I couldn't leave Italy without seeing Verona. It's about two hours north of Bologna, in the Veneto region, the same region as Venice. We had a rather un-serendipitous travel day, missing buses and waiting for trains, but we made it there and back and were very glad we did, because Verona was one of the most charming Italian cities I've seen all semester. It was chilly, being near the mountains, but it was absolutely beautiful. The architecture and colors of the buildings were beautiful, and there were balconies all over the city. It was very hard for me to pick and choose pictures for this blog entry, since I wanted to post them all! Hopefully the ones I selected give an accurate enough sense of the charm of Verona.


After a delicious lunch, we headed over to Verona's Duomo, or main church, built in the 1100s.



It was beautiful, very ornate and colorful, with many windows to let light in.

Next we walked to the church of Saint Anastasia. Naturally, we thought of our cat Anastasia, but those of you who have had the pleasure of making her acquaintance know that she's no saint.




Most beautiful, however, were the views of the Adige River.




Last but not least, this is the balcony at the major tourist attraction of Juliet's house. It was never, of course, inhabited by a Juliet Capulet, but it was fun to see from the outside anyway. Leading up to the house and the balcony, the walls were covered in love graffiti.



On the way back to the station, we got to see the bustling main piazza lit up for Christmas. On the left in this picture is the Arena, the Roman amphitheater. The last picture shows one of Verona's ports decked in silver lights.



And this afternoon, in Bologna, I enjoyed my first snow flurries of the winter!