Verona

From Florence (see last blog) we took a morning train up to Verona, home of Romeo and Juliet, and a friend of ours whom we used to live with in Japan. We used www.apartmentsinverona.com website to find accommodation this time as there was nothing available on airbnb. We had a choice of two apartments and settled on this one as the other had too many stairs for me!

We were right in the heart of the old city, just 5 minutes away from the Arena. Once we were settled we decided to go and have a walk around while we waited for our friend. We came across Juliet and her balcony, and a million other tourists. Somehow I managed to get both these photos without anyone in them.

We decided to move on from here and leave the crowds to it. We continued wandering and came into a main square filled with stalls. We stopped for a delicious cup of fruit (for only 2 Euros!) and to take some photos.

Later, we met up with our friend and went to this lovely restaurant for dinner, which was recommended by both the apartment people and our friend. My husband had both horse and donkey (he especially liked the donkey) while I stuck with the veges and had a tasty eggplant & cheese stack.

The next day we had a little sleep in and decided to take it easy and visit the arena. The nice thing about the Verona Arena is that it is still used today, for less bloody shows, such as musicals. Unfortunately they were in the middle of changing shows while we were there but we decided it would definitely be worth our while coming back for one sometime. We still got to see some of the stage set up and it was quite fun just to wander around and to imagine the gladiators fighting it out long ago.

After the arena, we decided to take lunch directly across from it and soak up our surroundings. Pizza was on the cards and although we didn't need a pizza each, they were very tasty.

Once we had had all the pizza we could handle, we met up with our friend again and she took us up this hill to get a view of the city.

Even with some haze, it was a wonderful view.

Our friend then suggested we go to a nearby lake (Lake Garda) and I suggested that a gelato would be a great addition to that thought. With that settled, we headed off.

This English couple were clearly as impressed with the place as we were. What a wonderful location to get married!

The beginning of a very short thunder storm told us it was time to head back to Verona. Once back we took another lazy stroll around as the sun set and then headed off for some dinner.

Cute little treats in a bakery

The next morning unfortunately it was time to say goodbye to our friend and goodbye to Italy. We got on a (very) early train back to Zürich and made the not so long trip home. 

Goodbye for now Italia, we will definitely be back to see more of you!

Italia: Milan and Florence, Tuscany.

We have just come back from a wonderful week in Italy. We went to see two Italian friends of ours and to celebrate an early wedding anniversary, as my husband is heading off to Copenhagen on Sunday for a week.
We took the train from Zürich to Milan, which was a very scenic route and far nicer than the route to Geneve in my humble opinion. 

We decided that next Summer we should come back down to Lugano (where this lake is) and go camping as there are a few camping grounds right at the lake edge.

Once we got to Milan, we stopped for a look around and had some lunch before heading on to Florence (Firenze). Our old neighbour from Atlanta is from Florence and is spending her Summer there. Florence is the biggest city in Tuscany and it is so beautiful. It has a river running through it and has an amazing artistic, historic and cultural heritage. Our accommodation was in the old city and just a short walk to all the attractions such as shops, museums, square, statues etc.

We booked our accommodation through a great website we found, http://www.airbnb.com/ Here you can book any kind of accommodation you like, anywhere in the world, and for any amount of time. All you have to do is type in the name of the city you're going to and the dates you want to stay and it brings up a list of options. We had a private room and bathroom in someone's home and the cost included a lovely breakfast in the garden each morning.

After we settled into our accommodation and had had a look around, we met up with our friend, had dinner and enjoyed Florence by night, which was made even nicer with the wonderful warm weather, and of course no trip to Italy would be complete without Gelato and I definitely had my fair share of it by the time we went home.

Florence is know for its leather and jewelery, the markets being the place to find leather goods and the old shops the place to find the largest pieces of jewelery you could ever hope to find. The store fronts were fantastic with their old style shutters and the jewelery inside was just as incredible (the purple fish is a bracelet).

Here are a few shots from around the town:

On our first night, our friend took us up to the top of a nearby hill so we could get a good view of the city. We had drinks up there and watched a beautiful sunset.

The large domed Cathedral you can see in these shots is the Florence Cathedral, and it is quite simply the most beautiful cathedral I have ever seen.

After a wonderful time exploring the city of Florence, our friend took us out on a day trip into the Tuscan countryside and to a Ravioli festival. Her friend was a wonderful tour guide and told us about all sorts of things along the way. It took about 3 hours to get to the festival but it was another beautiful day and the countryside was lovely.

We had a lovely setting for the festival in amongst chestnut trees.

Afterward we went on a little tour of the town and to a home of a friend of our friend, a home that was built around the 13th or 14th Century.

After a great day we headed back to Florence, stopping for dinner and a sunset along the way. We had good food at a fraction of the price it would cost in Zürich.

After such a wonderful time it was sad to leave Florence but we had one more destination and one more friend to see, so we packed ourselves up and got on a morning train to Verona. More on Verona in the next blog....