Venice and Verona

Venice, what can I say about it that hasn't already been said a thousand times.

Well, I have a few things to say. It's an interesting city but way too "touristy". We heard English spoken there more than Italian. The Basilica in Marco Polo piazza is nice but there was a l-o-n-g line to see the inside. We saw the beautiful canals and the small walking bridges going over them and did appreciate their beauty. To ride a gondola would have been nice but you're not the only one on the canal like in the movies. I don't know if you can see well enough to count but there are eleven gondolas in this one photo.

Not to say we didn't like Venice. It's a beautiful city with amazing architecture. There were so many places with carved stone and marble figures and designs that I could never photograph them all.

We went from the airport into Venice for a half day on Sunday when we got there and kind of scoped out the place. In Venice, it's easy to get to the city from the airport and easy to get around. We never got lost at all. On Wednesday we had a whole day and spent many hours walking around enjoying the beauty.

We watched an artist drawing with charcoal and were amazed that he would just wiggle his piece of charcoal on the paper and a boat or a building would appear. His finished pieces were beautiful.

On Tuesday afternoon/evening we drove from the Army base to Verona and saw the tomb and the house of Juliet (in Italian it's spelled Giulietta just so you aren't confused by the sign). I think we may have liked Verona better than Venice.

Just so you don't think I'm confusing fantasy with what's real. There were really families with names similar to that of Montegue and Capulet living in the Verona area near the time Shakespeare wrote his play. Families fueded all the time to get more power and land. No one knows if there were a young man and woman from the feuding families who fell in love but the town of Verona has set up the houses of the two families as those of Romeo and Juliet. I need to learn more.

Coming out of the area where Juliet's house was we passed through a small walk-through tunnel and saw thousands and thousands of clumps of chewed gum covering the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. It must be some kind of tradition but I can't imagine why. Many of the clumps of gum had names or notes with names beside them. Next time I go I've just got to find out what that's about.

There's a colosseum that is more complete than the one in Rome and still houses operas, theatrical productions and concerts by famous artists three seasons of the year. At the time we were there we met some people who had come to see Aida. Those who have been there for a concert say the acoustics are excellent.