Verona

Long time no (real) post! My weekend trip this weekend was amazing...we hit up three cities in three days and got to see so much, including my friend Kristen, who is studying in Padova, the city we visited on Sunday.

I'm going to recap each day separately, since I took a lot of pictures (surprise, surprise :))

Bright and early on Friday morning (4:45am to be exact) my roommate Jen and I woke up and left for the Termini (train) station. Our train left at 6:50am, but we wanted to ensure that we'd catch the first bus, since buses start running at 5:30am. We got to the station, and I figured I should use the bathroom before we left...only to find out that you need to pay to use the bathroom in train stations/some public places in Italy?? I mean, it was only 0.80 euros, but I was legitimately offended haha. So of course I waited until we got on the train where I could use the on-board bathroom for free, thankyouverymuch.

Leaving Rome

After a four hour ride with a few stops in other cities, we arrived in Venice. We stayed in an outskirt of the main city, because hotels in Venice center (think on the water) are wayyy out of our meager student budgets. Out hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the train station and after we found it and checked in, we grabbed something to eat and headed back to the train station so we could head out for Verona. Verona is the city where Romeo and Juliet took place, and Jen and I really wanted to see Juliet's tomb and house, so we figured we may as well do it since it was only two hours away from Venice and we had the whole day free.

Pretty Verona



After walking for a bit from the train station, we came upon our first destination



As we walked in, we caught this hilarious sign...


There was a museum that you could walk through which led to the tomb, so we decided to do that so we could see some artwork too





The museum led us to a pretty outdoor garden




Which led us to the tomb entrance


The tomb area was pretty creepy...very cold and dark


In front of the tomb


Afterwards we headed to Juliet's house. This was a bit of a walk from the tomb, and we saw some interesting things along the way, including the best car decal ever



Almost every store/restuarant in town borrowing Shakespeare's characters


Vespas everywhere


And many piazzas


We finally got to Juliet's house, and were greeted by this statue of her


And here's the house...this the *the* balcony that Romeo courted Juliet from, according to some


Hey, Charles Dickens was here back in the day too...


Posing with the balcony in the background


All of these love notes from travelers were pinned up on the entryway to the house


That concluded our stay in Verona! We headed back to the train station to wait for our train, something we had grown accustomed to...


Next up...Venice!