Travel Tales

Woke to heavy rain that hit northern Italy overnight. Not one to waste time and sit around, and being the romantics that we are, we decided to take a short 2.5 hour drive over to Verona. We headed to the 'old town' and first stop was for caffeine. We made the mistake of sitting down with a view of the Arena. The Arena was built during the last years of the emperor Augustus and is still in used for summer operas. Don't even want to think about how much we paid. All headed down Via Mazzine which is the smartest of the streets. The architecture of Verona is wonderful with their wrought iron balconies and frescoes. Only for the rain would have been nice to stroll along. On with our quest to Via Capello to find the 'balcony', with the masses of tourists. Don't know what we expected but it kind of appeared out of nowhere amongst the shops. Nevertheless, it was worth the trip. However, no rubbing of Giulette's breast for us as we all decided that we had found our true love..! Continued walking in the rain through the Piazza's and ended up at the Cathedral. The cathedral was spectacular and had a special energy about it, that seemed to humble us all. The frescoes and statues in the main cathedral were nothing short of amazing, but words don't do it justice (see pictures). The rain continued and we ended up back in the car, wet cold and full of focaccia and headed back to Bellagio. Paul did the 110kms on the autostrada in 50 minutes and the last 50km in 2hours.