Saturday in Verona

Ten travelers, all alike in dignity,
In fair Verona where we lay our scene
From Venice school break to new scenery
Where city card makes students' wide eyes gleam.
From forth the rocking train the student goes
Where pair of star-cross'd lovers took their life
Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows
Did with their deaths bury their parents' strife.
The pleasant passage, with the sun above,
And exploration without guide book's page,
To arena, tower, and house of love
Was the few hours' traffic of our stage.
To which if you with patient ears attend
What here shall miss, my blog shall strive to mend.

On Saturday morning, all ten of us set out on our first weekend trip, a one-day excursion as sort of a pilot to all of our trips to come. It's about two hours by train from Venice to Verona, and there are plenty of attractions in a small area, perfect for a short trip. Once there, we split into two groups. Purely by luck, my group discovered a wonderful thing called the "Verona Card," a ten-euro day pass that grants admission to a whole list of places- the Roman arena, the Casa di Giulietta (House of Juliet), museums, churches, and so on. Despite our limited time, we managed to visit six of the locations on the list.

Our first stop was the Chiesa di San Fermo, an awesome church with another church underneath.
Down another street, we (practically literally) stumbled upon some Roman ruins, and after that we found our way to La Casa di Giuletta, where we posed for pictures touching Juliet's breast (for good luck) and standing on her balcony. Of course I realize Romeo and Juliet is a work of fiction and La Casa di Giuletta is nothing but a tourist trap, but it was fun.
Next, we visited the Torre dei Lamberti and braved lots of stairs for a great view of the city.
The view from the tower was also a great way to orient ourselves and decide where to go next and how to get there. Next was the Chiesa di Santa Anastasia and then the Complesso del Duomo.
Our final stop was the Roman arena which offered more photo opportunities and an unobstructed view of a marching band performing in the Piazza below. We just happened to be in the city during a festa.

(Oh yeah, by the way: Purdue beat Ohio State!)

It was a long day, but a nice break from our busy schedule. And, now that we've negotiated the trains and another Italian city on our own, we're ready to travel more in the weekends to come...