Two households, both alike in dignity
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene…
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet

———-

Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. So you know if he chose to set three of his plays in Verona (Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona), there’s something special about this city.

That being said, we never really intended to come to Verona. We knew we’d be in Rome at the end of April and needed to be in Milan at the end of May to catch a flight, but in between, we could do anything we wanted.

We tossed around two seperate itineraries. The first was Florence-Portofino-Cinque Terre-Milan but I quickly axed that when I started to read all the horror stories about body to body traffic in Cinque Terre. (The fact that the Italian government is basically telling people not to come was enough warning for me.)

So, I took our other route idea and ran with it: Florence-Verona-Lake Como-Milan. I tried to make it an all lake trip (Garda-Iseo-Como-Maggiore) but poor Jer can’t stay away from big city life for too long or he’ll start to develop hives.

So when we made it to Verona and saw just how beautiful it was, I was thrilled with our decision. The very first day, we make the hike up to Castel San Pietro.

Where we were rewarded with this view:

We had two days of amazing weather, which we used to the fullest.

This was my personal favorite little spot in town, the statue of Madonna Verona, in Piazza delle Erbe. The piazza was lively and colorful and I really enjoyed it.

After those two sunny days, things went downhill. It rained and rained and rained, all week long. We still went out and about a bit, but definitely not as much as we usually would.

The weather meant a lot of churches, restaurants, and ducking in and out of courtyards and doorways.

Luckily, we had the most beautiful hippie/minimalistic apartment rental, so I was more than happy staying in.

One thing we didn’t do? Juliet’s house, the balcony, her statue, or the letter wall (all in the same little courtyard). It was horribly crowded and I’m just not into that. If you want to go, I’d suggest trying very early morning, perhaps you’ll have some luck then!