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..."
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