Jenna had the idea that we should go to Verona for Valentine's day of our year abroad. Thanks to Romeo & Juliet, Verona claims to be the city of love and pulls out all the stops to make Valentine's day extra special despite the fact that Shakespeare had never been there and Juliet's balcony is a sham.
In any case, this was our third stop in Verona but this one was on a mission. The city hosts something called "Verona in Love." They basically set up chocolate stands everywhere and put hearts on almost anything in the city that draws people. This is great if you like chocolate and even better if you know, unequivocally, that chocolate is the best thing in the world. We fall into the 2nd category.
There's more than just chocolate though: They have photo-ops, rose gardens, markets, entertainers, and much more. A walk through the city is somehow even more alive on Valentine's day than it is on any other day, which is an accomplishment. There's even a system in place to allow visitors to get married in Verona on V-day. We looked into it but needed an official document signed by a consulate and didn't want the consulate to know that we had overstayed our tourist visa. Almost a shame.
We weren't the only people in the area who wanted to go to Verona for this weekend, and as a result we weren't able to get a hotel room anywhere in the city. Thinking on our feet, we booked a room halfway between Milan and Verona in a small city called Brescia. The kicker was that we found a 5-star hotel for just under 100 euros per night. 5-star! We'd never stayed in a 5-star hotel!
The things I described above were accurate for our trip to Verona. It was lovely. The strangest part was on the crowded train from Milan to Verona when Jenna struck up a conversation with the young lady sitting next to her, who happened to be speaking English. She was from London, as were a couple of her friends, and they were au pairs in Milan. One of the friends was from the USA, it turned out, and as luck would have it she was from Ohio. So here we were, on a train in northern Italy, sitting next to someone whose friend was from the same state as me.
But where in Ohio was she from?
About eight miles from my parents house. I grew up in Chesterland, she grew up in Mentor. Small world.
I digress. It rained in Verona but we survived on chocolate. I had a stomach ache so I couldn't eat nearly as much as I wanted before we rode to Brescia for our two nights of luxury at Hotel Vittoria. We trudged from the station to our hotel and entered the lobby to the sound of a string quartet performing a small concert in the main hall.
Not bad.
Our room had robes, slippers, a not-quite-working shower door, views of the castle up on the hillside, and an American movie channel that was showing Good Will Hunting right as we plopped down on the bed. It was excellent.
We strolled the enormous street market on Sunday, nibbling at endless amounts of food but not committing to too much because I still wasn't feeling well. We wandered up to the castle, which would have been more majestic had it not been raining all day. It was a nice place to walk around, but there was minimal commotion.
The coolest part of Brescia was the side-by-side cathedrals, affectionately known as Duomo Nuovo and Duomo Vecchio (literally translated to new cathedral and old cathedral). The old cathedral was basically a stone rotunda, built in the 11th century on the site of what was previously a church. It's a lovely old building - unassuming from the outside and mostly undecorated on the inside - that just demands your attention as you walk around. You feel as if you're in a giant tomb because it's mostly just old stone. My photos didn't come out very well, so click here to see what it looks like.
In a manner that only European churches can convey, the "new cathedral" saw its own construction start in 1604...so almost 200 years before anything in America that's still standing. And that's the new church. Yeesh.
It's nice. It's big, ornate, impressive, and was apparently damaged during WWII so the dome was refinished within the last 75 years. Unfortunately it's not notably different than any other big cathedral in Italy. That's the new cathedral on the right side of the photo above.
We finished our 2nd night by using our fondue-maker to melt some chocolate and eat some strawberries, bananas, and whatever else we could get our hands on, because after all, it was Valentine's day.
Oh, and the breakfast at this hotel included a crepe-bar. There was a solid selection at breakfast but also a guy who would make any kind of crepe you wanted, which basically meant he would make banana/Nutella crepes. If heaven exists, that's what breakfast is every morning.
In any case, this was our third stop in Verona but this one was on a mission. The city hosts something called "Verona in Love." They basically set up chocolate stands everywhere and put hearts on almost anything in the city that draws people. This is great if you like chocolate and even better if you know, unequivocally, that chocolate is the best thing in the world. We fall into the 2nd category.
We weren't the only people in the area who wanted to go to Verona for this weekend, and as a result we weren't able to get a hotel room anywhere in the city. Thinking on our feet, we booked a room halfway between Milan and Verona in a small city called Brescia. The kicker was that we found a 5-star hotel for just under 100 euros per night. 5-star! We'd never stayed in a 5-star hotel!
The things I described above were accurate for our trip to Verona. It was lovely. The strangest part was on the crowded train from Milan to Verona when Jenna struck up a conversation with the young lady sitting next to her, who happened to be speaking English. She was from London, as were a couple of her friends, and they were au pairs in Milan. One of the friends was from the USA, it turned out, and as luck would have it she was from Ohio. So here we were, on a train in northern Italy, sitting next to someone whose friend was from the same state as me.
But where in Ohio was she from?
About eight miles from my parents house. I grew up in Chesterland, she grew up in Mentor. Small world.
I digress. It rained in Verona but we survived on chocolate. I had a stomach ache so I couldn't eat nearly as much as I wanted before we rode to Brescia for our two nights of luxury at Hotel Vittoria. We trudged from the station to our hotel and entered the lobby to the sound of a string quartet performing a small concert in the main hall.
Not bad.
Our room had robes, slippers, a not-quite-working shower door, views of the castle up on the hillside, and an American movie channel that was showing Good Will Hunting right as we plopped down on the bed. It was excellent.
(the view from our window)
We strolled the enormous street market on Sunday, nibbling at endless amounts of food but not committing to too much because I still wasn't feeling well. We wandered up to the castle, which would have been more majestic had it not been raining all day. It was a nice place to walk around, but there was minimal commotion.
The coolest part of Brescia was the side-by-side cathedrals, affectionately known as Duomo Nuovo and Duomo Vecchio (literally translated to new cathedral and old cathedral). The old cathedral was basically a stone rotunda, built in the 11th century on the site of what was previously a church. It's a lovely old building - unassuming from the outside and mostly undecorated on the inside - that just demands your attention as you walk around. You feel as if you're in a giant tomb because it's mostly just old stone. My photos didn't come out very well, so click here to see what it looks like.
In a manner that only European churches can convey, the "new cathedral" saw its own construction start in 1604...so almost 200 years before anything in America that's still standing. And that's the new church. Yeesh.
It's nice. It's big, ornate, impressive, and was apparently damaged during WWII so the dome was refinished within the last 75 years. Unfortunately it's not notably different than any other big cathedral in Italy. That's the new cathedral on the right side of the photo above.
We finished our 2nd night by using our fondue-maker to melt some chocolate and eat some strawberries, bananas, and whatever else we could get our hands on, because after all, it was Valentine's day.
Oh, and the breakfast at this hotel included a crepe-bar. There was a solid selection at breakfast but also a guy who would make any kind of crepe you wanted, which basically meant he would make banana/Nutella crepes. If heaven exists, that's what breakfast is every morning.
Comments
Post a Comment