N. ITALY-VERONA part 1
September 11-26, 2024Buongiorno!
We returned from Northern Italy in late September, time to relive and share our memories through trip reports.
In June I found tickets on ICELANDAIR for around $460 out of Dulles Virginia...bargain! I asked my wife if she wanted to spend her birthday in Italy? Ok she says!, round trip flights booked to Malpensa, then the itinerary?! I wanted some mountain time, she wanted some water time, and we both wanted to visit some friends in the Langhe. Our search and decision making was quite exhausting!
With 80% of our two week itinerary booked our flight departed Washington Dulles. The evening flight was 5-1/2 hours to Reykjavik. A "bargain" flight comes with no frills, but the complimentary water was superb! We did receive an email offering meal options, but we opted for an early pre-flight dinner so we could try to sleep, good plan but no sleep. "Passport Control" in Iceland was a breeze, nobody in line after first detouring for a beer. Final leg to Malpensa departed on time, we arrived around 1500 hours.
I must confess, I could have done better pre-planning for this day.... after retrieving our roller bags we hustled to a transportation kios, we used few words when asking the clerk for tickets basically saying "we would like 2 tickets to Verona through Milan, please", clerk replies arrive Verona 1830, cost is 60 euro, perfect we say! During the short wait for our train we commented on the low cost, then realized we were taking a regional that didn't go direct to Milano Centrale, oh well! We would go as far as Milan Cadorna station, then needed to buy a metro fare and continue to Milano Centrale.
Now here's the BEST PART...to add to our unorganized start we realized we left one roller bag on the train from Malpensa, SH*!!! by the time I sprinted back to the platform, squeezing through an exit turnstile, the train had already left ugh! Lucky I wasn't arrested ;-) With the help of nice security personnel the train was contacted, they found our bag that was fortunately in the first car. They said they would return in an hour ugh ugh, but certainly things could have been worse!! We laugh at this exhaustion related blunder now, but we were not laughing then and I hope that never, EVER happens again! ;-)
After I gave MY bag a big hug we hopped on the metro to Centrale, then onto another regional to Verona. I did not like the start of this trip LOL, but after researching the train schedules the clerk did save us money and even with the mishap we arrived only an hour after the preferred direct high speed train. FYI, many years ago on a Caribbean trip I had a bag misplaced and it took the airline several days to return it to me. All my clothes were in it, since then I've always put some "what if" clothing in my carry on. We gain more knowledge every trip, riiiight?!
Even with travel issues we seem to experience positives, we spent most of our regional trip talking with our daughters Italian "doppleganger", nice young lady from Brescia. We were able to coordinate a self check in with our host, we only told her that "we took a later train" ;-) . Outside the station we grabbed a taxi to take us to our apartment in the rain. We stayed in a pedestrian only area next to Castelvecchio and just a short walk from Piazza Bra, such a peaceful and quiet area. Our usual plan to fight jet lag is to remain active until 2200 hr. We completed our self check-in and then went to see what we could see. The rain had let up after producing a lovely golden sheen on the cobble stones.
It was a Thursday night and the earlier rain must have contributed to the lack of people on the streets, but we only saw a couple dozen people around Piazza Bra! Most restaurants had maybe two tables occupied. We chose to have a meal close to our apartment in case the rains started again, pizza and lasagna was a perfect choice!
We actually stayed up until close to midnight, we were awake for nearly 36 hours! We find it funny that we often make knee jerk purchases, my wife enjoyed her house wine at the restaurant, so we bought a bottle to drink along our journey, that bottle made it all the way back to Virginia... so did my roller bag ha!
We slept soundly until 0800hr. First on our agenda was to find a bakery that our server recommended to us, Elk Bakery. We used the Scaliger Bridge to cross the second longest river in Italy, the Adige. Historic note...this bridge was reconstructed in 1950 after retreating German troops destroyed it, ugh. We visited Verona for only one night years ago, but this would be our first time venturing over the river. There are beautiful views along the banks of the Adige. The bakery is located in a suburban setting and it's very popular. We took our place in line and 10 minutes later we were comfortably seated outside. The Elk is more than just a bakery, the breakfast and service was outstanding! We highly recommend!!
Time to walk off those delicious calories and walk we did! Over the next two days we would amount over 50,000 steps! There have been exceptions, but we are generally not the type of travelers to patiently wait in long lines or pre-pay to tour the inside of many locations you'll find when googling "must sees". Our style is to certainly seek out notable places, often casually enjoying them from the periphery. One exception to this is that we do walk into the majority of churches we come across.
From the outside Chiesa di San Tommaso blends into its surroundings, if you were to blink you might just walk on by. We entered and were not surprised to find a beautiful church with all the bells and whistles, colorful stained glass, high timber framed ceiling, glorious marble floors and columns, beautiful frescoes and alter etc. A nice lady approached and in her broken English asks if we'd like a tour? we took her up on the offer. The manner in which she described the history of the church, the frescoes and other prominent artifacts was priceless. She took us onto the alter and pulled back a curtain showing us an ornate memorial containing part of a skull, gold chalice etc that was returned centuries ago from England, if I understood her correctly it was St Tomas. Then to complete our tour she took us to the beautiful and prominent organ, she said in the 1700's at 13 years old a young up and coming musician performed a concert there and he carved his initials in the organ...Wolfgang Mozart, how cool is that! Tour was free, but of course we left a nice donation!
There are so many churches in Verona! We also enjoyed touring (paid admission) Chiesa di San Fermo. This church dates back to the 5th century I believe and actually there is a lower and upper church, one Romanesque and one Gothic. The architecture and history here is mind blowing. The upper church has an incredible wood ceiling consisting of 416 individual works portraying the busts of saints. Imagine jumping back in time... to say maybe the year 500 and get to see how this type of architecture was constructed. I just built a lean to on my barn, it took me forever with modern tools ha ha!!!
We leisurely walked the banks of the mighty Adige then hiked up to the Castel San Pietro, consisting of many steps meandering up to offer the most impressive views of Verona and even the Alps in the distance! We didn't mind the walking, but we discovered there is a funicular that one can take.
Around town we spent hours helping to smooth the cobblestones, it's a very enjoyable and walkable city. On Saturday we found the open air Market at Piazza delle Erbe for a little shopping. The shopping here can be upscale especially closer to Piazza Bra, I preferred the mom and pop shops on side streets including the wonderful produce stands, my wife even made a purchase at a "vintage" clothing shop near the University, I should bring a suitcase full of my old jeans and Carhart stuff to supplement travels costs, ha! We definitely saw the crowds increase Friday and Saturday, there was some music awards show/concert at the Arena that helped populate the city center. We saw several "must sees" on our previous trip so we breezed by the crowds at several notables including Romeo and Juliette sites etc..
We certainly took some breaks to enjoy good food and drinks at small cafe's, I'm still amazed at the snacks that can come with one drink! I found a great sidewalk table for one when my wife declared it was time for a haircut, she returned looking beautiful...but then again I had been drinking...just kidding ;-) (she reads this stuff you know!)
We wanted to see the Basilica San Zeno Maggiore, so late Saturday afternoon we walked to the west side of town. Nice area to walk but unfortunately it was closed, still nice on the outside. Speaking of drinks, we found a nice suburban piazza near the Basilica where obviously the locals call home. Sat there people watching until it was time for dinner.
Walking a few blocks towards our apartment we found Bistro Con Amore Vini e Cucina. This was one of our favorite dinners of the entire trip! We were a little uncomfortable when they sat us very close to another couple, tables were pretty much touching and so were our elbows. But soon enough we talking it up like we were old friends. They were Australian and had been traveling for a couple months, they were moving about with no set itinerary, we liked that. We shared wine and stories and before we knew it three plus hours had flown by.
Time to pack.......to be continued!
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