Verona, Lazise & Varese

Monday 19^th September 2011

Yesterday was meant to be cloudy and a bit cooler but as it turned out for most of the day it was still quite warm, about 27. We’ve pretty much had 30’s and over every day for the last 2 weeks, that was until last night (or this morning) however when I woke at 2.30am to hear it pouring outside. The first sign of bad weather we’ve had. Got up early as usual but by the time we packed up to leave Padova it was about 9:00am with it still raining outside.

Firstly we headed to Verona which was a really lovely town and the weather started to clear as we got closer which we were very happy about.  It is the town where Shakespeare set Romeo & Juliet. I was really looking forward to seeing Verona, maybe because of something I’d read, and we weren’t disappointed. We both agreed it was one of our favourites. We stopped for a couple of hours and wandered around the streets, stopping at various points of interests among them a Roman Ampitheatre (a 1^st century pink & white amphitheatre known as The Arena and the 3^rd largest), Porta Leoni (one of the city’s Roman gates), Castelvecchio (an old castle and bridge) and of course Casa Di Giulietta (Juliet’s House).  Legend has it that rubbing the right breast of Juliet’s statue will bring you a new lover.  Needless to say even though neither Kim nor I are that way inclined we nearly knocked her over trying to do just that!! Here’s hoping. In the Piazza delle Erbe, a large piazza containing market stalls is was surrounded by palaces, where there were frescoes on the walls. Very charming city and we were sorry we didn’t have more time.

Jane testing if the legend works!

Next we set off for Lake Garda and from the map we chose a little town on the outskirts to view it from which was Lazise. A great choice, another walled town with quaint little streets and alleyways everywhere.  It was very windy there but not cold and we were surprised how many people were rugged up like it was winter whilst Kim and I were walking around in tshirts. We wandered around again for another couple of hours  browsing the shops and then sat down at the lakefront and had a cappuccino and tiramisu. Yum.

Lake Garda from Lazise

Off we went again to our final destination for today, Varese. We arrived at about 4:30pm after a busy day ready to relax for what will probably be another big day tomorrow when we visit Lake Como and try and track down George (Clooney).

A little summary of our trip so far…

1.      We finally mastered how to work the ipod in the car, new car, strange controls, what can I say! Now have a bit of Jimmy for company on the long trips.

2.     Directions from Italian’s – For example today we were told to go right when the man was pointing left. This has happened a lot, so we have learnt to go in the direction they point and not the direction they say.

3.     The Italian’s have their Autostrada down pat. If you are slow you stay in the far right lane, medium pace the middle lane and crazy stupid in the inside lane. We are now in the middle lane with spurts here and there in the crazy stupid lane, blending right in with the locals, which includes joining them at the Autogrills for snacks.

4.      There are dogs everywhere (on leads). You never hear them bark much and they pretty much ignore you when you pass but they are in the hotels, in the bars, in the shops and even in the restaurants and no one seems to mind. There isn’t a lot of poo around either so they obviously clean up after them.

5.   We learn a little something new everyday for example to find the information office and get a map of the town we are visiting before heading off on our own!

By the way it looks like it is going to be clear again for the rest of the week, yeehah.

Kim at one of the infamous Autogrills!!

P. S. Thanks to everyone who has made a comment, they are very much appreciated. Glad you are enjoying our trip with us.