Verona and Venice

We stayed only one night in Assisi before boarding our coach for our next destination, Venice, stopping on the way in Verona, which our tour director said was one of the most beautiful cities in Italy.  Verona is credited as being the place of origin of tortellini, mortadella, and Parmesan cheese, and it is also known as the setting for one of Shakespeare’s best-known tragedies, Romeo and Juliet, which begins with this prologue:

Two households, both alike in dignity
(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

There is some dispute about whether the Bard ever visited Verona, or Italy, at all.  But there is no dispute that one of the tourist attractions in the city, “Juliet’s Balcony,” is not in fact the balcony beneath which Romeo declared his love to the 13-year-old Juliet (yes, her age is revealed in Act I, Scene III), because the play is entirely fictitious.  So we gave the balcony a miss, out of respect for Shakespeare.

It’s a shame, really, that the city fathers of Verona felt they needed to resort to such a gimmick to attract tourists here, because as our tour director said this was indeed one of the most beautiful cities we had visited, with a Colosseum smaller than Rome’s but equally impressive.

There was also a pretty square and a café (Caffe Liston) where we sat for a glass of wine, in this case the rich, dry, flavorful red wine called Amarone.  Of all the wines we had tasted in Italy – and we had tasted a lot of wine by now – I think this was the best I had.

From Verona, we traveled to Venice, the famous city on the water, and left our coach on the shore for a water taxi.  Our hotel was directly on the canal, and after checking in, just as the sun was setting, we went for a memorable tour ride on the Grand Canal and saw Venice at the most beautiful time of day.