Verona Italy

Our last day in Italy was spent in Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet. We had to take the car instead of the train because there were no cheap trains between 9am and 12pm to Verona that day. The car ride was incredibly hot... the weather has not gone below 30 degrees in the past week. We arrived, parked the car and started exploring.

We walked up and down the crowded streets. Even though I didn’t know much about Verona before now apparently other people did, as it’s a big tourist attraction. We visited Juliet’s house and saw the famous balcony from Shakespeare’s story. The gate was covered in locks that lovers had attached, and the tunnel leading the courtyard has love notes and graffiti covering it.

We walked along the river where even more locks were hanging from the bridges. This fad of love locks has spread across Europe, I’ve seen them in almost every city I’ve visited this summer. Afterwards we stopped at a cheap recommended restaurant for panzerotti’s and a break from the sun.

 

After lunch we stumbled upon a small market in town where they sold a lot of tourist items and some food. Many of the stands sold lovely large cups of fruit which Laura and Francesco couldn’t resist. Laura mainly couldn’t resist the coconut though. We continued on our way and saw the river from another angle where we relaxed for a while.

 

Andrea was supposed to pick up his Ukrainian friend Hannah from the train station and we were running rather late. We had to rush to leave but she already would have to wait forty-seven minutes in the heat at the station. When we arrived at the station Francesco and Laura took the train from Vicenza to Thiene so that we could fit Hannah and her luggage in the car.

 
 Everyone met up in the centre in Thiene to have a drink at the nice café from our first day. Andrea and Laura had another Aperol Spritz (a common drink in the area). We returned home by foot and were welcomed by a lovely dinner set up by Andrea’s parents. There was prosciutto and melon, cucumber salad, caprese salad, grilled zucchini and eggplant among others.

 Later on in the night a few of Andrea’s friends came over and we talked until late. As they were leaving there was a huge lightning storm, the most lightning I’ve seen at one time.