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| The balcony from Romeo & Juliet |
I spent a week in Italy in a small town
that’s close to Venice with my parents. It was an interesting trip. Before I
didn’t have any expectations for Italy because I didn’t really know what we
would be doing. The only place I had to see was Verona. Ever since seeing the
movie Letters to Juliet, I have
wanted to see the city of Verona.
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| A window from the Arena |
When we landed,
I could instantly tell that I was in a different country. Italy’s architecture
has a more spaced out feel compared to the UK. There’s more room to move around
and the inside makes the space feel bigger than it actually is. Whereas in the
UK, the spaces are tighter and the houses are small and compact.
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| Street french fries |
The day after we landed, we drove to
Verona. The first place we saw was the Arena. It is like the Colosseum, but not
as large. We didn’t go inside unfortunately, but it was interesting to see the
outside. Even at a distance people can see the detail of the rocks in the
windows.
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| Leather belts for sale |
We then walked down the street, heading
to Casa de Giulietta. The streets are small and can get busy really quickly.
The street we walked down had stores with different gelato places and small
food shops. The stores lining the streets are high-end stores like the ones I
find in the King of Prussia Mall back home. While walking the streets I would
try and pick out the tourists from the locals. Most tourists were ones that had
their cameras around their necks and constantly stopping. The street opened up
to a street market. Many of the stalls had typical tourist trinkets. There were
also stalls that sold staple Italian food, like pasta and olive oil.
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| Courtyard of Casa de Giulietta |
Casa de Giulietta was pretty small. The
entrance walls had a bunch of love letters, which then opened up into a
courtyard. In the courtyard was the statue of Giulietta. People touch her right
boob because it is said to give you good luck in romance. To the right of the
statue is the balcony where the famous “Romeo, O’ Romeo” scene is played out.
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| Fresh pasta-to-go |
The next big
city we visited was Venice. The best advice I can give about visiting Venice is
to leave the large square and walk down the small streets within the city.
While walking through the small streets, we found a pasta-to-go place. It was
called Dal Moro’s and the pasta is handmade and the sauce is made fresh. I got
rotini pasta with Alfredo sauce and mushrooms. It really was one of the best
pastas I have ever had.
The city itself is very picturesque. The
way paintings and pictures portray it is exactly how it looks. It is a nice
city to visit, and once you get a hang of the boat buses, it is easy to get
around. I thought of the boat buses as a subway system, like London
Underground, and went from there.
I had a fun
time in Italy. I do wish I was able to see Florence, but it was too far to go
to. I definitely need to go back to Italy at some point in my life and visit
the other cities.
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| A canal in Venice |
