Verona - Romeo-ver in the Clover

Sunday 4 July 2003. What light through yonder window breaks? 'Tis a brick and 'twas Juliet wot chucked it! Yes, we are back on the coach for another day of fun and frolics. Today we head towards Verona, home of Roman remains, star-crossed lovers and more pickpockets than you can shake a stick at...

As we approached said city, all quivering with excitement, we stopped first at a shrine cum monastery cum sanctuary high on a hill but without a lonely goatherd, but a with wonderful panoramic view of the city.

During World War II a church in Verona had been destroyed but the statue of the Madonna had been found unscathed. This Sanctuary had been built to house it and to give thanks.

We reached the outskirts of Verona. Some of the guests haven't come as it was raining in Riva. In fact we had had thunder and lightning throughout the night but here it was brightening up as we crossed the River Adige into Verona.

The Castelvecchio or Old Castle was an important military construction, built between 1354 and 1376, probably on the site of an earlier Roman fortress. It stands on the Verona bank of the River Adige and has an adjoining bridge that crosses the river. The swallow-tail merlons run atop both the castle walls and the bridge which was intended to allow the ruling Scaligeri family to escape northwards to the Tyrol in the event of a successful invasion or coup.

But it was the Romans who were here before the Scaligeri family and the city has several impressive reminders of them. This is the Arco dei Gavi a rare privately funded archway that originally stood along the Via Postumia and was incorporated into Verona's city walls in the 12th century. In the later 1300s it was incorporated into the Scaligeri castle and had the pediment and attic level removed to allow for a walkway into the castle.

In 1550 it ceased to be a gateway into the city and was sold off with two shops opening within the arch. The surrounding walls were demolished leaving it free-standing. When Napolean's troops took over Verona in the early 1800s French engineers demolished the arch, having drawn diagrams of the features and decoration, then storing the blocks of stone under the arches of the Roman arena. In the 1920s reconstruction was suggested but it would not be started until 1931 when the original pieces were re-erected with the attic and pediment redesigned from the diagrams made by the French engineers.

The impressive Roman Arena was built in the year 30 CE. At the time the site would have been outside the city walls. It was designed to hold 30,000 spectators and drew audiences from many miles away. Today concerts and, famously, operas are held within it, the space taken by the stage meaning that it's modern audience capacity was reduced to 20,000-22,000 with subsequent health and safety precautions bringing it down to 15,000.

In 1117 a major earthquake destroyed the outer ring apart from a tiny portion seen here. The city has since crowded around and upto the arena and it is almost impossible to get a decent photograph of the existing portion of the outer wall.

I did my best! The streets facing the wall of the outer ring are narrow and it was impossible to stand far enough away unless you were only end-on to the remaining wall.

Our excursion included tickets to go inside and look round. First we had to remove a couple who had burrowed into our midst in the hope of getting in free. They tried to appear confused and act as though they had made a genuine mistake, but come on...! In the end, our guide stood by the turnstile and just yanked them out of the queue as we passed!

And out we came from the darkness of the vast tunnels under the seating areas and into the arena. Miss Franny baulked at climbing up the steep steps and is sitting with her back to us just to the right of the steps seen through the gap in the fence to the right of centre. I climbed up enough to get a shot of the stage but there were still a good number of rows of seating - the bare rock variety - behind me.

"Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?" Spoiler warning - look away now if of a nervous disposition... Neither Romeo nor Juliet ever existed. The house with the balcony at 23 Via Cappello dates from the 13th century and was owned then by the Capello family who were probably Shakespeare's inspiration for the Capulet family. But the clincher is probably the fact that the balcony which looks so right, was added to the house shortly after the City of Verona bought the house in 1905... Nice try though.

Under the balcony and against the edge of the garden is a bronze statue of Juliet, its chest burnished bright by many grasping hands. Apparently stroking the right breast brings good luck and long-lasting love, but many young men get confused over left and right...

It has also become a custom to leave love messages inscribed on bits of paper, old tickets and more yukkily on chewed and flattened chewing gum stuck to the wall of the house. What could be more romantic than indenting your beloved's name on a soggy bit of well-chewed spoggy...?

It was crowded and really hot in the tiny garden under the balcony. A few of us went to sit on a bench out of the sun under a short tunnel that was the entrance to the garden. All was well with Kell, Denise and ourselves until the large Italian seen sitting right next to me on the far right let out the most enormous fart... Kell's eyebrows hit the ceiling then the giggles started and at the point where someone said accusingly "Cor - Romeo!!!" the Italian got slowly up and walked away!

The guide collected us and took us to look at the family palace of the Scaligeri family whose courtyard was filled with their highly decorated tombs. As we were all standing outside the palace walls we could only see the tops of them. The guide was a teacher and was under the impression we would be dying to know the dates of birth, marriage and death of each tomb's occupant(s) - I was getting fed up and Terry had found an ice cream shop... We left the others to it!

We were still close to the arena and on one side found all the props and scenery stored for the next performance. I'd hazard a guess at Aida!

It had gotten far too hot to contemplate walking about much more and our time before the return to the coach was shrinking rapidly. We all decided to go for a drink in the bar where we had bought the ice creams a bit ago.

Terry ordered a litre of beer. "That's only small isn't it?" he asked, "I only want a small one..."

Lake Garda and Northern Italy, 2003 Index

The Dolomite Pass Pordoi

Saturday 3 July 2003. We look back on an excursion again today, heading back into and up the Dolomite mountas via the Pass Pordoi.

Hairpin bends and spectacular views were the order of the day.

There was a familiar voice as another Leger party got on the coach. I turned to see Christina who had been our guide in Amsterdam! "I take you round the red light district here?" she shouted down the length of a suddenly stunned silent coach...

Ever wondered what the Winter Olympics ski jumps look like in summer? Scary. They look scary!

We reached the Pordoi Pass. This reaches an altitude of 2,239 metres (7,346 ft) and we started climbing 9.4 kilometres (5.84 miles) ago with an average gradient of 6.8% - glad I wasn't travelling by pushbike... Helena, our guide for the day, was soon booking tickets for us all to go up the Sass Pordoi.

That wasn't a spelling mistake. Sass Pordoi is a mountain at 2,952 m (9,685 ft), whose summit can be reached by funicular from Pordoi Pass. These were large cable cars, not the small ones. They held a fair amount of people so once we had our tickets it didn't take long before we were heading skywards!

They set off climbing at quite a steep angle too. We were amongst the last people on, so had a good view looking downwards. I've never been particularly bothered by heights providing I'm not in the process of falling from them, but not everyone on the coach felt able to attempt the trip up the mountain.

It was a long way up even on the cable car. We felt our ears pop a couple of times as we ascended and the air got thinner.

At the top of the mountain there were a couple of gullies and the cable car made use of them, passing between walls of rock on three sides as it neared the top station.

As we reached the summit and got out to walk atop the plateau of the mountain top we could see that the cable car station actually overhung the edge.

Looking back down the way we came up we could see only a cluster of buildings without being able to make out much detail. The sun's rays lit up the tops of surrounding mountains and the path of the valleys far below.

Up here on the rock plateau it was decidedly chilly. Admittedly I was only wearing a t-shirt... My arm started to tingle with cold. When I looked, tiny ice crystals or snow flakes were landing on me. Time to go back down!

As we waited for the cable car it started to snow a bit harder and we crammed into the first available car shivering and clapping our arms around ourselves trying get warm again.

We were all on the coach again apart from a Chinese mother and daughter who had gone wandering around independently instead of going up the cable car. They turned up 20 minutes late and tried to blame it on Helena telling her that she had told them the wrong time - even though the rest of us had obviously gotten there on time. Helena was having none of it. "Don't argue with Mama!" she said in a voice that brought on a sudden storm complete with thunder and lightning...

Lake Garda and Northern Italy, 2003 Index

Excursion to Venice

Friday 2 July 2003. An exciting day! We have our usual early morning stroll around Riva and then wait for the Leger coach to pick us up and away we go to spend a day in Venice.

It is a journey of two parts. Here we had just got off a water bus along the shoreline of the Venetian Lagoon. In the afternoon we would be having a swift sail on the lagoon.

However the coach has had to drop us off at the far end of the lagoon because Venice is made up of a group of islands and your standard Leger coach doesn't travel over water so well. We were dropped off here in an industrial bit, with a train of tankers chugging slowly down the side of the road. On the edge of the lake a water bus picked us up to take us onwards to Venice's main island which include's St Marks Square and basilica, the Doges Palace, the Bridge of Sighs and the Rialto Bridge.

Some of the gang waiting for the water bus to pick us up. Kell, Denise, Andy, Margaret and Miss Franny.

We walked as a large group from the water bus to St Marks Square. Our excursion included a gondola ride and so it was as well to do it first thing whilst we were all together as a group before we all split up to explore Venice independently.

In 2003 to hire a gondola was roughly seventy two pounds and they can sit up to six people. So we were to make sure we filled all the seats or we would have been charged more.

With the two of us were Kell and Denise, the chap with the crew-cut hairstyle was Terry and taking the photo was another chap who I think may have been called Jack... It's a while ago...

The Gondolier has a single long oar or paddle and stands on a board platform at the rear of the gondola on a piece of carpet to protect the board. The gondolas are expensive bits of kit and contained something like 22 different kinds of wood and several different kinds of metal. They cost something approaching the same as a top of the range car. Currrently around 40,000 Euros in 2023. We'll see the Bridge of Sighs again in a bit.

Every bridge over the canals was jammed with people watching the gondolas. Not much chance of a crafty cuddle with your partner of choice unless you are a bit of an exhibitionist... Oh wait... that's me...!

The ride on the gondola took half an hour and then we all split up once back at St Marks Square to do our own thing before meeting once again at the boat station further down the lagoon shore for our trip on the lagoon that would finish back at the coach.

We dived into the streets as the crowds in the square were such that we had no chance of waiting to go into the basilica. We found a small pizzeria. By now my Italian was improved enough to order food without having to hope the waiters spoke English! Not that Pizza Margherita is all that different in Italian but...

Venice is a great place for window shopping and art and crafts shops are everywhere. From the famous Murano glassware to carnival masks, paintings to calligraphy pens, you can't go wrong. It is not however a cheap place to pick up your souvenirs. If a bit of pottery or glassware has no price on it then it's safest to assume your pockets are not deep enough!

And occasionally a street comes to a bridge and the only thing over the bridge is the entrance to a shop!

It was getting time to start thinking about going back towards our meeting place. We hadn't looked around St Marks Square and that was a must before we had to go to meet the rest of the party. Miss Franny didn't want to look at the shops in the arcades that extend around three sides of the square, but I insisted...

She found a tea set she liked. It had no price but those glasses on the left were 80 euros each. I stifled a nervous laugh and said Oh look over there!" and neatly steered her away. "I didn't want them..." she said in an annoyed tone, whilst looking wistfully back over her shoulder...

Looking from the far end of St Marks Square back at the basilica and the free-standing bell tower or campanile. This latter stands 98.6 metres tall (323.5 feet) and is a brick tower topped with a pyramid shaped copper-covered spire atop of which is a spinning representation of the Archangel Gabriel in flight which acts as a weathervane. It stands on Roman foundations, and dates from the 12th century CE. Much work was done to it until it was rebuilt entirely in the 16th century.

After centuries of both lightning and earthquakes it collapsed in 1902. Luckily it fell away from the basilica. It was rebuilt to look exactly the same as before, though the interior was subject to more rigorous safety standards. It was opened once more in 1912.

The Doges Palace sits on the corner of the square and the lagoon. Instantly recogniseable with its pink diamond decoration. The Doges were the leaders of Venice. Before the unification of Italy Venice was a nation in its own right and an extensive one, having made its mark bringing many of the territories in the Adriatic and Mediterranean under its rule. You will still find the winged lion of Venice in many cities in the Eastern Mediterranean today from Croatia to Cyprus. The Doge was the highest authority. The word in Latin would be Dux meaning leader, the same root as the English Duke.

On the right hand side of the palace is the Bridge of Sighs. Built from 1600 CE, it was a route from the courts of the Doges Palace to the prison. The name comes from the legend that prisoners would take their last look at the outside world from its shuttered windows and sigh... Another legend is that if you kiss your sweetheart whilst passing under it in a gondola at sunset you will be granted eternal love. I'm not sure if that is meant to be with the person you just kissed or not...

For a giggle, I looked up the latest reviews of the Bridge of Sighs. These were the top three: "It's a well-known location and many people take photographs there" and "Enjoyed every bit of the sights" and my favourite: "I ordered lobster and filet steak"... Wow, you guys should really take up writing tour guides...

The annual Venice Carnival is a riot of fantastic costumes and masks and takes place late January to mid February (it ends on Shrove Tuesday). It ran for centuries untl 1797 when it was banned by the Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II. It was started again in 1979.

A row of stalls between St Mark's Square and the water buses on the lagoon, offer a variety of souvenirs. We had ample time to stroll back along them on our way to the meeting place and around us we recognised some of our fellow travellers doing the same. Our guide (it was Lucille once again from Bolzano and Renon) took over the microphone on the boat and gave a really good commentary.

The temperature was well over 40 degrees centigrade. It was warm out there! After a quick tour of the lagoon the charter took us back to the industrial estate where we had left the coach. One chap got seperated from his family and we had to wait whilst he found us...

In the next article, mountains, cable cars, and an old friend from Amsterdam!

Lake Garda and Northern Italy, 2003 Index

The Renon Trams and Pyramids

Thursday 1 July 2003. After our stop in Bolzano we were back onto the coach and travelled a bit then we found ourselves heading up a mountain on a cable car.

We had arrived at a place called Renon, where we were about to catch a tramcar to - I don't know - somewhere near Renon... Once at this destination lunch would be provided and then there would be a short walk to see some "pyramids". We were a bit agog, thinking that if there were pyramids in the Dolomites, why had we never heard of them...

Anyway, one tram came and went then another came and Lucille, our guide, said we had this one to ourselves, much to the disgust of the Germans, who were waiting close to the tracks, ready to jump on!

Once we were all inside, the tram ran along the edge of some fairly spectacular precipices and Lucille told us that the pyramids were a natural phenomenon, and not man-made.

The tram stopped, we got off and were herded to a tavern where lots of other parties were in the process of being disappointed at the tiny miniscule portions offered to us by smiling staff. Put it this way; you could have, as a drink, either beer or wine. I chose a beer and almost anywhere else in the world would have been given more liquid if I had asked for a small wine... If you go on this trip, take a picnic.

From there we followed Lucille, who was striding purposefully way out in front whilst the rest of us followed in a straggly line, tummies rumbling with hunger and already feeling as though no pyramids could possibly make up for the disappointment of lunch. No wonder the staff were smiling - they must have been making a fortune out of us as the cost of the food would have been included in the cost of the excursion.

We were also starting to wonder how far we were going to walk... At one point we passed a small terraced cafe.

"Have you any spare drinks?" we were wailing plaintively as we passed...

The amount of resentment amongst the party must have been the reason Lucille had set off at such a pace so that she was in no danger of anyone having breath left to complain. We could have been about to witness the most incredible sight in the entire world and we would still not have appreciated it.

The pyramids were pillars of sandstone formed by some weathering process. "We have something similar in New Zealand" Kell said, "and it's the same thing. You see them, say 'Yup...' and walk away again!"

Lake Garda and Northern Italy, 2003 Index