An Italian Adventure – Vast Verona

Hearing many great things about Verona, I decided to jump on a local bus to explore the city for myself. For 8 Euro return I had a beautiful, hour long, ride through the countryside from Garda Bus Station to Verona city centre. Unfortunately, this happened to be one of the best parts of the day (I was a bit silly visiting the city in 41 degree heat).

The bus stop was right next to the Arena di Verona, a Roman amphitheater where many operas take place during the summer months. Outside there was a lot of Egyptian props which were beautiful to look at.  This did confuse me at first and I did wonder whether I had stayed on the bus too long and ended up in Egypt.

Unfortunately, I was not able to go inside the Arena (I didn’t have enough time), but I made the most of the views from the outside.  There was even some Romans guarding it!

Make sure to only pose with the friendly ones!

The streets were very busy, but soon I made it to the infamous Juliet’s Balcony. This is said to be where Juliet was standing when the most famous line from Shakespeare was said.  I arrived into the courtyard a little after 10 am and it was getting very crowded, a word of advise – don’t go here on a busy afternoon, pickpockets love to hide among the crowds.

I’d love to say I had found another Italian city to fall in love with but for me, Verona is just like most other cities in Europe. Yes, it has a beautiful centre with old buildings which have so much history but if you don’t like shopping there isn’t much else to do (that I am aware of).  The best part is, it is flat. I would recommend this to any Adventursaurus out there with a chronic illness, especially if you are worried about hills, or everything being really far apart (Yes, Prague I’m talking about you). In my opinion you can see all of the main attractions in one day or even less.  So it would make a great destination for someone to try out a city break for the first time, especially with the short flight from the UK.

If you are planning on visiting, don’t worry about having to spend a long time here, unless you want to go shopping there are an abundance of shopping orientated streets to choose from.

The architecture of the churches was beautiful, honestly I thought it was a shame they charged an entrance fee.

Even though there were many small streets to wander down, I was able to successfully navigate my way around Verona without getting lost once (new record for me!).  I loved the view over the river from Ponte Garibaldi (sadly this was not a giant biscuit), after spending time in Venice and several other Italian towns, it was lovely to see some open green spaces again.

I had a very enjoyable day in Verona, and I loved meeting the Romans guarding the Arena.  However, I don’t think I will be returning any time soon, I managed to see all of the main attractions in one day and shopping isn’t really my thing.  But, I definitely recommend this to any of you Adventursauruses looking to try a city break for the first time in a smaller and more accessible city.

“At first I did adore a twinkling star

But now I worship a celestial sun” ― William Shakespeare (The Two Gentlemen of Verona)

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