Verona.

For me Verona has been a real mixture of impressions.  It is definitely a trendy place to be.  I have been very surprised at the number of young tourists around, in two's, three's, and sometimes bigger groups.  How do I know they are tourists?  Partly from the fact that many are pushing bags, but also from the language - a lot of German and English.  The English spoken with an English, American, and even a few Australian accents.

A view from the River Adige.

Because I have an extra day in Verona I decided that I would go out to Lake Garda for a visit.  Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy, glacial in origin, and is a top tourist destination, as I discovered.  A couple of years ago I happened to see the Giro d'Italia on SBS and saw Sermione and decided that as I was going to be so close that if the opportunity arose I would like to visit it.  Sermione is on a peninsula that juts into the lake for about three and a half kilometres.  It is only about 2 - 300 metres wide, with a wide "bulge" at the end.  I am glad I went, though when I saw the wall to wall tourists I nearly hopped straight back on the bus.

I ignored the length of the peninsula, which has in excess of 30 hotels on it, and made a bee line for the "bulge" at the end.  There were a couple of things of interest here, one being a small church (which was closed) with a memorial to members of the resistance.  The other thing was to see the famous grotto- the Grotte di Castillo.  That was all I knew about it, and it was not at all what I expected, certainly not a cave, though it got it's name several centuries ago because of its cave like quality, but no longer. It is in fact the ruins of a Roman villa.  It was massive, over a 100 metres long, and originally three stories high.

The castle at the start of the "bulge" at Sermione.  You can see just a few of the thousands of tourists crossing the bridge.

These are some of the ruins at the Grotte di Castillo.  Hopefully you can get a sense of the size of this villa, or rather the ruins, and also what would have been, and still is, a specratularly beautiful setting for a home!

After my day at Lake Garda I spent the next couple of days in Verona.  There are many Churches in Verona, but in terms of art work there are four churches that ask for a donation (not an entrance fee!) to visit.  I bought a ticket, visiting three of them and catching a concert in one.

Just some of the things I saw in the various churches in Verona.

I did something I have never done before and went on the little tourist train, jolting my way around the city!  I also went to Guiletta's (of Romeo and Juliet fame) house.  I could not believe the hundreds of people there.

 The little tourist "train" that I bumped and jolted around the city in.

 Like I said - wall to wall tourists, in the case leaving Juliet's house. Note the crocodile line of a tour, complete with radios around their necks following their leader who is carrying the blue and gold ribbon on the left.

A wannabee Juliet on the balcony.  This gives you an idea of the throngs of people.

My time in Verona is finished, but because I am so tired burning the candle at both ends (more of that next post), I will probably catch a bus or train out of the city.  The prospect of fighting the thousands of people here gives me no joy.

Work continues apace at the arena.  All will be revealed in the next post.