June 14th

We took a relaxing day in Milan and went to the Arts and Science museum. The museum was cool, but just way too much info in a small space. They had a lot of stuff (with examples) of how to tell the difference in real and fake antiques which was AWESOMELY interesting, but there was a lot of info. After the museum we just wandered around because we didn't have much else to do. We went back to the hostel for much needed afternoon naps and had gotten a roommate named Vinny from Brazil who was super cool. The Italia/Paraguay game was this night and we went up to the Duomo where there is a huge square where everyone gathers to watch games on this HUUUUGE TV on the side of a building. For the first game of world cup group play, there were still a LOT of people there and we had a great time. There was a chant-leader and a group of very loud and excited dudes cheering and later a massive blow up soccer ball appeared and mass chaos ensued. Literally everyone ran toward the ball and it was pretty wild.

June 15th

We packed up and took a train to Verona this morning. I had estimated the train trip legs to be around $40-45 when I had done all that researching earlier in the year, and so a rail pass made sense, but we hadn't gotten on yet and I'm glad we didn't! The train was only 9 euro per person!! So awesome. We arrived in Verona, found our bed and breakfast (B&B Alla Erbe - very near the city center) and had our wandering day around Verona. It's really not that big of a place and we had it pretty well figured out after a couple hours. It's a gorgeous little city and we felt very safe there so it was a nice change from Milan. We headed back to the hotel, which was really just a three bedroom apartment turned into a B&B. Breakfast never ends and there was unlimited coffee from the coffee machine so I was very happy. I definitely recommend B&B Alla Erbe!

June 16th

We went to Juliet's house and bought a Verona pass for 15 euro pp for a three day pass to all kinds of stuff we had decided (by wandering around) that we wanted to see. Ryan took pics of me up on Juliet's balcony :) The house is pretty and sort of acts as a Romeo and Juliet museum (though very small amount of stuff). The walkway to Juliet's house is filled with love notes and love graffiti and is really cool. Next we hiked over to San Fermo church. San Fermo was really pretty and I think we've decided we really like comparing all the churches and art inside them so we keep going to them, but they're all starting to run together. Then we went to Juliet's tomb, which has a museum attached. The museum had a lot of sculptures and art from old Verona times, but nothing extraordinary and nothing R&J related, and Juliet's tomb was pretty not exciting too, so I wouldn't recommend doing the museum and tour, but it was on our pass. We stopped in the Natural History museum which, again, without the pass I wouldn't spend money on. They did have some neat fossils and fossils of huge trees but that's about it. We went to the Roman Theater next and it was cool because there are the ruins of the theater, but also a newer part so that the theater can still be used today, and there's an archaeological museum there too which was good. Lots of gorgeous mosaics there that were pretty amazing. The view from the Roman Theater was great, but then we went to the viewpoint on the hill just above it at Castle San Pietro. You can't go in the castle, but the views are fantastic of Verona and it's free, even without the pass! Just across the river we hit up the Duomo, but it was so different than Milan's Duomo because it certainly wasn't as cool as San Fermo. It did have neat organ pipes though. We wandered around town more and we ate a nice dinner at a little place and I found some wine I liked :) We went to the grocery after dinner and bought two bottles of wine for only 5 euro! The nutella and mouthwash were more than the wine and we only paid 10.20 euro total :) We went back to the hotel and enjoyed our last night there with more wine!

June 17th

Today we had to switch hotels because Verona was sold out for Friday and we didn't want to switch for just one night so we took a bus out to Bussolengo (just 15 km outside of Verona) to a REALLY NICE B&B (actually a hotel) called Villa Garden Bar B&B. We packed up all our stuff and headed to the bus stop. Then a massive thunderstorm soaked us head to toe while we waited for the buses. There were 3 routes that could have taken us there and eventually only one came and it was 45 minutes late. That was 45 minutes of standing huddled under an awning (that because the wind picked up automatically retracted completely) and then standing under a tree which was ok until the wind started to blow the rain around and then standing under a big umbrella that didn't really do anything at all. We got on the bus and not having any clue what Bussolengo looked like, missed the stop, but saw our hotel as we passed. We got off on the next stop and walked a ways back to the hotel and eventually made it - looking just awful. Luckily the rain had stopped during the bus ride and it was bright and humid, making us look so silly. The hotel owners were a really nice older couple and their daughter and were very gracious. We settled in, had an amazing lunch at a place in Bussolengo, and took the bus back to Verona to explore for the day. We decided to go to the Arena di Verona to visit before the opera so we could pick out where we wanted to sit and see the Arena while they were putting the set together for Turandot. If it wasn't on our pass, we would have just waited until the opera of course, but since it didn't matter, we went in and wandered around. Then we went and climbed the Tower di Lamberti which has huge bells in it. They chimed once when we were right under them and it was pretty disappointing and not loud, but maybe on the hour it's louder. Great great views from there though - a 360 of the entire city! Then we went to Castelvecchio because it's a castle and there's a museum. This was certainly worth it even if you don't get the pass. There's a huuuge museum that wraps all through the castle and you get to see a lot of the castle which is right on the river and is really pretty. The castle's bridge that goes across the river is really neat and you can get to that without entrance to the museum. By now, Ryan and I have seen a lot of paintings and sculptures so we started being a little silly and making funny jokes about some (see pictures). We headed back to Bussolengo for dinner since food was cheaper there. On the way to dinner we met a really nice girl named Christina from Norway who came along to the same restaurant we had for lunch with us. She was super cool and was going to try to get opera tix in the morning and go with us, but never met up with us at breakfast :(

June 18th

We headed into Verona for Opera day!! It was the last day of our pass so we went to Museum Lapidario which had two tiny rooms of boring stuff (don't go there). We were bored and had nothing to do so we went to St. Anastasia church. Probably 50% of the church was under restoration which was a shame because those were the most beautiful parts and the parts we could see were the most amazing we've seen so far. I couldn't take a lot of pics though because I forgot to charge my camera battery and needed to save it for the opera :( Definitely visit that church though! Then we went to get gelato and while eating, saw that the US was playing Slovenia in the mid-afternoon game, not the late game. We had drinks at a restaurant and watched the game. We don't really want to talk about that game, but a tie is better than a loss. We wasted time and got dinner, then queued up for entrance into the arena for the opera at 7:00ish. We had bought a book with the synopsis and lines of the opera in English so we could read and understand the story. They opened the entrance at 7:30 and we got good seats. I was smart and brought our inflatable camping pillows to sit on so we didn't have to sit on the stone steps on our behinds :) It was nice. The show started at 9:15 and it was wonderful! I loved the opera! The set was really neat and in the second act it opened up and the huge lighted temple against the starry night sky was spectacular and everyone applauded. In the beginning of the show, everyone had been given candles on entrance to the Arena and when the lights went down, the arena lit up with tiny candle lights and it was so nice! We saw Turandot and when Prince Calaf sang Nessun Dorma, so many people were humming along and the orchestra was wonderful! Because it was opening night, all kinds of important people of Verona were there and there were red carpets and people really dressed up in a super nice balcony right in front of us. We had to take a taxi back to the hotel in Bussolengo because the buses stop running early, but oh well. The opera was certainly worth splurging on!

June 19th

This morning we took the bus back into Verona to the train station and got a train to Venezia Mestre and are now settled into Camping Jolly which is like a campground in a town environment outside of Venice. It's 12.50 euro per person for our own tiny trailer which is spotlessly clean and really nice with an ensuite bathroom. The restaurant at the campground has low food prices and there's also laundry facilities, free internet and a little market. It's really cool here and so far we're enjoying it. Ryan's clothes were so disgusting that when he opened his bag on the train I thought some animal had died in there, so that along with the imminent thunderstorms and rain have kept us here at the campground doing laundry and relaxing. We didn't want to go into Venice for half a day and I'm glad we didn't because the rain is not nice right now. It's pretty dark and thundery now. We'll head into Venice tomorrow and we'll probably stay here another night since it's so nice!

- Sara