Verona 08/20/10

Got up early today to pack everything up and catch a train to Verona (actually the stop before because that’s where our bed and breakfast was). After a stressful 3- hour trip we finally got to the station, got all our luggage off and still had time to have an espresso before our friend picked us up from the station. She’s an American friend who moved to Italy about 20 years ago and has been a great help with planning the trip and we’re going to spend the last two weeks of our time here with her taking care of us.

We drove to a bed and breakfast about 20 miles from Verona and unpacked, claimed out beds, and decided to drive to a nearby sightseeing joint which was an old fortress town bordering a very very large lake between Trento and Verona, Lago de Guarda. We walked around, talked about the differences between Americans and Italians, ate, and tried not to buy those stupid touristy things. Today was the first time I was served a whole fish and I almost couldn’t it because it’s little head was looking at me. But I got over it and it was good although I think I’ll try to avoid that experience again.




Afterwards we drove back to the bed and breakfast and took a little nap before getting ready to see Turnadot in the Verona Arena, which is the only reason we made the trip to Verona. We left a few hours early so that we could explore the city but ominous thundering noises went on all during our nap (although it was dry where we were) as we got closer to the city it started to rain, and then its started to rain harder, and then we ended up stuck in the parking lot for two hours of anxiously glancing up at the sky looking for any lighting up of the rain and counting the seconds between the lighting and thunder, which was close. Finally at 8 we decided to get out of the car because it looked like there was a break in the storm and we wanted to make sure of what was going on with the opera which would start at 9. We were able to rush order a pizza from a pizzeria (which does NOT happen in Italy a lot let me tell you) and get into the Arena. It was still drizzling at 9 but the stage hands were mopping up the set and preparing to get ready so we were still hopeful. If they start the opera and play for 5 minutes they can cancel the show and not give you a refund so we were wondering if we were sitting in the cold and wet to get played. But they got everything ready and started at 9:40 and everything went beautifully from there.

Last time we came in 2005 we saw Aida and were caught in a very violent downpour about 30 minutes before the show that completely soaked us but stopped right before so we sat through the night shivering and wet so I guess this time was a much better deal. The Verona theater has a tradition of having the audience light candles while they turn off all the lights at the beginning of the show because that’s how they arena was lit hundreds of years ago. They didn’t do it this year which made me sad but I still have the memory from before.