Chris has been looking forward to the highlight of his trip … a Sunday afternoon football match between Hellas Verona and Lazio, a team from Rome. It was typically Italian football with nudges, trips, dives, hacking, drama and handbags! The score was 1-2, Hellas Verona woz robbed! I’ve not been to a match with such good singing and banner waving before … quite atmospheric. Tunes included YNWA, When the Saints, The Red Flag, Que Sera Sera and our very own God Save the Queen, no doubt all with different words! Chris read a Tim Parks book about a season when he followed Hellas Verona to every game, and every character and emotion described at those games, were present at our game!
Then came some sightseeing! We wandered the streets of Verona, dodging tour parties following guides carrying unfurled umbrellas or glitter sticks aloft, seeking the Arena …
various piazza …
churches and frescos aplenty …
climbing the Torre dei Lamberti for views …
perusing art in the Castelvecchio museum …
and crossing a couple of bridges (both rebuilt after being bombed by the Germans in WWII) …
We would have seen the Teatro Romano but it was unexpectedly closed … that’s Italy! The emblem of a ladder is seen all over town, on the football banners and other flags, as it was the symbol of the Scaligere family who ruled the city in the 13-14C, and Arche Scaligere are some of the most elaborate Gothic funerary monuments in Italy.
And then there was the garden … Giordini di Giusti, laid out in 1570 with a cypress avenue leading to a grotto with macherone, hedged parterres, statues and a belvedere, a lovely place to wander on a sunny afternoon and get a view of the city.
Shakespeare called it fair Verona, and set three plays here including of course Romeo and Juliet, based on an old Italian story, which has always attracted tourists here, but now millions come to Verona. Every day, letters often just addressed ‘Juliet, Verona’ arrive in the city … and every one is answered! From as early as the 16C, a place had been identified as Juliet’s tomb, in a building once belonging to an old convent. Lord Byron and Dickens both wrote of their visits and Byron even took a small piece of granite as a souvenir. Visitors started leaving notes to Juliet, then in 1936 a Hollywood blockbuster of Romeo and Juliet was made and the site received a makeover to better suit the legend. A chap called Solimani was taken on as custodian and he developed the attraction through showmanship, encouraging visitors to have their photo taken together by the tomb and making a wish to Juliet, leaving messages to her or signing the guestbook. Soon letters started arriving addressed to Juliet, and Solimani started replying as The Secretary of Juliet on an old typewriter. In 1989 the job was taken on by volunteer secretaries at The Club di Giulietta who have replied to 50,000 letters since then. The letters are from men and women, from all round the world, asking for help in matters of the heart.
Today, you can even send a message by email … Chris is still awaiting his reply!
Visitors such as Dickens were directed to a house on Via Cappello as being Juliet’s House and it was bought by the Commune of Verona in 1905. Following the success of the refurbished tomb, the house got the same treatment in 1940, with the facade improved with a balcony, probably made from a recycled 14C sarcophagus, interestingly too far from the ground for even the most athletic Romeo! Today the entrance is covered in romantic graffiti and the tourists have started rubbing the bronze statue of Juliet for luck in love, and queues of people wait for their chance to stand on the balcony. Fortunately we were there early, entry was free with our Verona card so we too stood on that balcony!
Then to Juliet’s tomb, through a colonnaded entrance and a courtyard garden and down some steps to an old sarcophagus… quite atmospheric, except she was a storybook character!
Finally, apparently no visit to Verona is complete without a taste of the Baci di Giulietta, or Juliet’s Kisses, a sweet treat invented by Pasticceria Perlini in 1940, consisting of a pair of chocolate and hazelnut shells sandwiched together with hazelnut cream, now joined by a white almond version … very tasty, very sweet!
Other gourmet delights have included courgette flowers stuffed with a cheese filling, bigoli with duck ragu and risotto made with Amarone, a very delicious local red wine.
And now with our minds full of all we have seen and our tummies full of pasta and pizza, the time has come to bring our Viaggio a Verona to an end. We hope you enjoyed the trip too!
Off Travelling Together 