On Wednesday morning, March 21, we boarded a train bound for Verona. We had decided to stop over here for one night on our way to Lake Como. Little did we know that we would be so enchanted with the place.
There is no doubt that Verona will forever be known as the home of Romeo and Juliet (Romeo e Giulietta in Italian), the famous characters in Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. Just why does this story have such universal appeal, appeal that has lasted for centuries? After all, this is not a love story with a happy ending. These are not characters that we would want our teenagers to emulate. And these are just that: characters. The entire story is fictional. Yet, after all this time, the story continues to haunt us. And, because it was set in Verona, the city continues to draw people from all over the world who want to follow in their footsteps. We were two of them.
When we arrived in Verona, about an hour and half train ride from Venice, we took a cab to our hotel. Our home for the night was the beautiful Albergo Aurora, located right on the bustling Piazza delle Erbe. We knew that we were in for a special day when we checked in and were told, “We were able to give you the romantic room with the balcony.” In fact, this was the only room in the hotel with a balcony, and from it we were able to look out over the piazza, the site of an old Roman forum which today is the heart of the city. Directly in front of us, across the piazza, was a clocktower, and to the left of that, adjoining the two buildings is the famous Arco della Costa. If you look closely, you’ll see a whale bone suspended beneath this arch. Legend has it that the bone will fall on the first “just” person to walk beneath it. Well, several centuries have gone by, and that bone is still there. No, it didn’t fall on either of us either, and we walked under it three different times!
The first time we crossed under the arch on our way to Piazza dei Signori, which is lined with many Renaissance-era buildings and palazzos, including the former city council building that was constructed in the 15th century. Nearby is the lovely Chiesa di S. Maria Antica alle Arche Scaligere, an ancient church that dates back to the eighth century. Already we had fallen in love with the beauty of the architecture of Verona’s buildings, its cobbled streets, and wonderful lack of crowds.
But now it was time to visit the Casa di Giulietta (Juliet’s House). Our timing was perfect. Somehow we managed to choose an exact window of time when no school or tour groups were scheduled, leaving the entire house to us. The house is located on Via Capello and is a 13th-century structure, which unfortunately graffiti artists have attacked, both outside the gate and inside the courtyard. As you enter the courtyard, you immediately notice two things: to the right is the balcony, reminiscent of that famous scene from Romeo and Juliet. The 
second is a bronze statue of Juliet. And if you look more closely at this statue, you’ll notice that Juliet’s right breast is much shinier than the rest of the statue. That’s because for decades visitors have rubbed this breast for good luck. And we thought, “Why not?”
After garnering our good luck for the day, we entered Juliet’s home, an airy, beautiful space restored to look as it might have in Juliet’s day, with period furniture and artwork. Opera music filled the air, inspiring Chip to sing along and, at one point, to pull me toward him for a waltz. One room even contained the bed and costumes that were used in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet. And one room contained computers on which visitors can leave a note for Juliet, all in the seemingly hopeless attempt to reduce graffiti.
And then I went out on the balcony, and right as a large school group arrived, Chip managed to serenade me from below. My Romeo!
Making our escape before the students flooded Juliet’s home, we walked to the Roman Arena, a splendid pink marble structure that was build in the first century. Today this well-preserved amphitheatre serves as Verona’s opera house. What we wouldn’t give to see an opera there one day! The arena brought out a bit of ham in Chip as we wandered about the seats and to the top to enjoy the views.
The Roman Arena sits on Piazza Bra, a 16th-century pedestrian-only plaza lined with palazzos and cafés. We bought a gelato and enjoyed it in the sunshine in the adjacent park, overlooking a lovely fountain.
Our next stop was the Museo della Radio, a quirky place that doubles as a radio school of some sort. Walking into the museum is like walking into your great-grandfather’s musty basement. It was filled with vintage radios of every sort from all over the world, many of them in mint condition. However, it was a bit eerie as we were the only ones in the place, save for a few dummies in the exhibits, which startled us as we came upon them. 
But this museum makes sense when you consider that Guglielmo Marconi, whose work with sending radio waves became the foundation for the modern radio, was Italian.
A short walk from the Museo della Radio led us to the Tomba di Giulietta (Juliet’s Tomb). Given that Juliet is fictional, I’m not really sure who is buried here, but it’s clearly a place where people make regular pilgrimages. And unfortunately, many of those appear to be graffiti artists.
We didn’t stay here long as we wanted to be at the Giardino Giusti (the Giusti Gardens) before sunset. These gorgeous gardens were created near the end of the 15th century and were further modified in 1570 by Agostino Giusti, a knight of the Venetian Republic and a squire of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. The gardens are terraced, which allowed us to walk higher an higher, each terrace offering an even more spectacular view. The main part of the garden has ornate hedges, sculpted bushes, statues, a labyrinth, and the famous cypress avenue. Along the way we passed even more statues, acoustic grottos, and what is called a mascherone, an ugly fellow who at one time spit flames out of its 
mouth to scare off intruders. It was such a pleasure seeing Verona spread out below us, especially knowing that we were seeing the same views once enjoyed by such luminaries as Cosimo de’Medici, Goethe, and Mozart, all visitors at one time or another.
After leaving the gardens, we walked over the Ponte Nuovo, serenaded by a trumpet as we made our way across, just as the rains began again. We made it back to our hotel just in time, where we took a brief rest before going to dinner, watching the lights come on in Piazza della Erbe.
We chose to have dinner our only night in Verona at Trattoria al Duomo, and we couldn’t have made a better choice. In fact, this may go down as our most memorable meal in Italy. We arrived about a half hour before they started serving dinner, but found that the place was already in full gear. The place was packed with locals, most of them over the age of 70. The draw? A small band of four old men playing an 
accordion and ukuleles, along with a fifth gentleman who sang periodically. For the 30 minutes we were there before dinner, they played a series of Italian standards while the crowd sang along. And even though we clearly didn’t belong, they welcomed us as family. One woman came over and gave us a gift of a butterfly constructed out of pipe cleaners and glitter. And one old gentleman even asked me to dance; I gladly obliged. In addition to the entertainment, our meal was wonderful. In fact, we were sorry to have to leave this warm, inviting place. This was truly a night that we’ll always remember, and our time in Verona is something we’ll always treasure.
There is no doubt that Verona will forever be known as the home of Romeo and Juliet (Romeo e Giulietta in Italian), the famous characters in Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. Just why does this story have such universal appeal, appeal that has lasted for centuries? After all, this is not a love story with a happy ending. These are not characters that we would want our teenagers to emulate. And these are just that: characters. The entire story is fictional. Yet, after all this time, the story continues to haunt us. And, because it was set in Verona, the city continues to draw people from all over the world who want to follow in their footsteps. We were two of them.
When we arrived in Verona, about an hour and half train ride from Venice, we took a cab to our hotel. Our home for the night was the beautiful Albergo Aurora, located right on the bustling Piazza delle Erbe. We knew that we were in for a special day when we checked in and were told, “We were able to give you the romantic room with the balcony.” In fact, this was the only room in the hotel with a balcony, and from it we were able to look out over the piazza, the site of an old Roman forum which today is the heart of the city. Directly in front of us, across the piazza, was a clocktower, and to the left of that, adjoining the two buildings is the famous Arco della Costa. If you look closely, you’ll see a whale bone suspended beneath this arch. Legend has it that the bone will fall on the first “just” person to walk beneath it. Well, several centuries have gone by, and that bone is still there. No, it didn’t fall on either of us either, and we walked under it three different times!
The first time we crossed under the arch on our way to Piazza dei Signori, which is lined with many Renaissance-era buildings and palazzos, including the former city council building that was constructed in the 15th century. Nearby is the lovely Chiesa di S. Maria Antica alle Arche Scaligere, an ancient church that dates back to the eighth century. Already we had fallen in love with the beauty of the architecture of Verona’s buildings, its cobbled streets, and wonderful lack of crowds.
But now it was time to visit the Casa di Giulietta (Juliet’s House). Our timing was perfect. Somehow we managed to choose an exact window of time when no school or tour groups were scheduled, leaving the entire house to us. The house is located on Via Capello and is a 13th-century structure, which unfortunately graffiti artists have attacked, both outside the gate and inside the courtyard. As you enter the courtyard, you immediately notice two things: to the right is the balcony, reminiscent of that famous scene from Romeo and Juliet. The 
second is a bronze statue of Juliet. And if you look more closely at this statue, you’ll notice that Juliet’s right breast is much shinier than the rest of the statue. That’s because for decades visitors have rubbed this breast for good luck. And we thought, “Why not?”
After garnering our good luck for the day, we entered Juliet’s home, an airy, beautiful space restored to look as it might have in Juliet’s day, with period furniture and artwork. Opera music filled the air, inspiring Chip to sing along and, at one point, to pull me toward him for a waltz. One room even contained the bed and costumes that were used in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet. And one room contained computers on which visitors can leave a note for Juliet, all in the seemingly hopeless attempt to reduce graffiti.
And then I went out on the balcony, and right as a large school group arrived, Chip managed to serenade me from below. My Romeo!
Making our escape before the students flooded Juliet’s home, we walked to the Roman Arena, a splendid pink marble structure that was build in the first century. Today this well-preserved amphitheatre serves as Verona’s opera house. What we wouldn’t give to see an opera there one day! The arena brought out a bit of ham in Chip as we wandered about the seats and to the top to enjoy the views.
The Roman Arena sits on Piazza Bra, a 16th-century pedestrian-only plaza lined with palazzos and cafés. We bought a gelato and enjoyed it in the sunshine in the adjacent park, overlooking a lovely fountain.
Our next stop was the Museo della Radio, a quirky place that doubles as a radio school of some sort. Walking into the museum is like walking into your great-grandfather’s musty basement. It was filled with vintage radios of every sort from all over the world, many of them in mint condition. However, it was a bit eerie as we were the only ones in the place, save for a few dummies in the exhibits, which startled us as we came upon them. 
But this museum makes sense when you consider that Guglielmo Marconi, whose work with sending radio waves became the foundation for the modern radio, was Italian.
A short walk from the Museo della Radio led us to the Tomba di Giulietta (Juliet’s Tomb). Given that Juliet is fictional, I’m not really sure who is buried here, but it’s clearly a place where people make regular pilgrimages. And unfortunately, many of those appear to be graffiti artists.
We didn’t stay here long as we wanted to be at the Giardino Giusti (the Giusti Gardens) before sunset. These gorgeous gardens were created near the end of the 15th century and were further modified in 1570 by Agostino Giusti, a knight of the Venetian Republic and a squire of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. The gardens are terraced, which allowed us to walk higher an higher, each terrace offering an even more spectacular view. The main part of the garden has ornate hedges, sculpted bushes, statues, a labyrinth, and the famous cypress avenue. Along the way we passed even more statues, acoustic grottos, and what is called a mascherone, an ugly fellow who at one time spit flames out of its 
mouth to scare off intruders. It was such a pleasure seeing Verona spread out below us, especially knowing that we were seeing the same views once enjoyed by such luminaries as Cosimo de’Medici, Goethe, and Mozart, all visitors at one time or another.
After leaving the gardens, we walked over the Ponte Nuovo, serenaded by a trumpet as we made our way across, just as the rains began again. We made it back to our hotel just in time, where we took a brief rest before going to dinner, watching the lights come on in Piazza della Erbe.
We chose to have dinner our only night in Verona at Trattoria al Duomo, and we couldn’t have made a better choice. In fact, this may go down as our most memorable meal in Italy. We arrived about a half hour before they started serving dinner, but found that the place was already in full gear. The place was packed with locals, most of them over the age of 70. The draw? A small band of four old men playing an 
accordion and ukuleles, along with a fifth gentleman who sang periodically. For the 30 minutes we were there before dinner, they played a series of Italian standards while the crowd sang along. And even though we clearly didn’t belong, they welcomed us as family. One woman came over and gave us a gift of a butterfly constructed out of pipe cleaners and glitter. And one old gentleman even asked me to dance; I gladly obliged. In addition to the entertainment, our meal was wonderful. In fact, we were sorry to have to leave this warm, inviting place. This was truly a night that we’ll always remember, and our time in Verona is something we’ll always treasure. 
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