Today began with a great breakfast at our hotel, Hotel Trieste...though we prefer German and Austrian train conductors, our preference for breakfast certainly lies with the Italians! Fruit, croissants, prosciutto, mozzarella, mmmmm...it was delicious!

Verona has been somewhat unique in that we didn't really have a list of "must-sees," so we sort of let the day take us where it would. We began the day at the Arena di Verona in the center of town - an old Roman arena that looks a lot like the Colosseum in Rome. It is the site for the (apparently) popular opera company here. Sadly, we are missing the beginning of summer opera season by a day, but we did get to see the set under construction. Based on our very knowledgeable assessment (or not) they have a lot to do by tomorrow evening! Later in the day we visited the Roman Theater, another performance venue in, you guessed it, an old Roman theater. We really enjoyed getting to see how the town has embraced these nearly two thousand year old ruins to use them for their original purpose...well, minus the gladiator, throwing people to wild animals part.

We also got to climb (we were too cheap for the 1 euro elevator ride...plus the brochure said only the laziest rode the lift) to the top of Torre dei Lamberti - a bell tower built in the 13th century. The views were incredible! Though Verona really doesn't have any "famous" places, just the setting of it in the middle of the hills, with the river at the center, and beautiful buildings and balconies all around makes it impressive. We got to overhear an Italian tour guide telling a tour group the story of Romeo and Juliet while we were at the top, which was fun since we visited the house of Giulietta (Juliet) last night.

After resting sufficiently from our trip up the tower, we descended and then walked to a park on the north side of town called Giardino Giusti. The park is privately owned and was begun in the 1200s and opened to the public in 1591. It was full of Cyprus trees, paths, sculptures, a belvedere (still need to look up the translation...but we thinks that means a lookout point) and even a labyrinth. According to local legend, if a couple can find one another in the labyrinth, they are destined to stay together forever - fortunately, we did...we thought it would be an appropriate way to spend our anniversary! Speaking of which, Jon surprised me with a beautiful necklace to celebrate our third anniversary today. With as little as we brought and sharing all of our suitcase space, he did a great job surprising me :-)

By the time we left the garden, we were ready for lunch, which we had in a cafe overlooking the river - more pizza for Jon and a salad for me (I was dying for some leafy green stuff, so it hit the spot)! Then, we began our trek to Castelvecchio, the old castle built in the 1350s on the former edge of town. It was an impressive building filled with Renaissance art and a bunch of photo opps for Jon (see pics for his photo-taking stance). He is nearing the halfway point for his memory cards...and yes, we are only one third of the way through the trip. We would never have survived Europe on film...not sure how I survived Spain with only 9 rolls.

We walked back to our hotel to rest and then went out for dinner at a cafe in Piazza Bra called Olivo. Our food was wonderful once again - pretty sure you can't go wrong here! We miss the mountains of Austria, but I'll take gnocchi over schnitzel any day! Dinner was followed by tiramisu and gelato...we figured we earned it today with our walking and climbing.

Tomorrow, we are off to Venice where we will spend two days before heading out on the cruise. Hopefully we will make it through the canals to our hotel! Wish us luck!