The Veneto - Verona

 

Verona is just a really beautiful town; easy scale, lots of variety, and lovely earth tones. We drive from Scorze with our friends Jan and Balint, through the Veneto country side; we comment how it reminds us of the mid-west in the US. They got long flat fields, framed by mountains - and the storm clouds and cornfields add their own familiarity. What's not familiar is the occasional campanile or castello in the distance.

We arrive through a slot cut into the old city walls, and a big rusticated stone gate (not the one pictured). A short walk from the garage and we pass through the stone archway (pictured) and into the historic city center. It's a great welcome.

Turn another corner, around the Piazza Bra, and we can see the old Roman Arena. The mix of brick with the stone, the way the bricks color the rim of the Arena, is wonderful. There are other stone gates around the city as well.

We pop out at the side of the Adige River; the historic city of Verona is within a kind of hairpin turn in the river.

Then we arrive out at the Cathedral Square. Signs seem to direct us to a small museum there, but it is (maybe?) closed. However, we find a lovely courtyard of thin, double-columned screens, and behind that we find parts of old frescos and floor mosaics.

Inside, the Cathedral is also beautiful. There is a simple and elegant Baptistry. The Cathedral itself is full of detail and light. Next to the big old church there is a smaller, older church, and inside that, exposed under the floor, are the ruins of an even smaller, older church. It's all very well presented.

Back outside, we take in as much as we can of Verona: the river's edge, the old stone buildings, the cypress trees, the great churches and gates, and the graceful bridges. We finish at the Castelvechhio, with its ruined battlements and great views back to town.

We are staying in Scorze, at an inn called Antico Mulino; very pretty. It maybe cicada season or something, but there are lively noises all around.