Well, Jen, Taber, Adam and I decided to go to Verona. Jen and Taber got on the earlier bus while Adam and I slept in, getting there seperately. Adam had friends in Verona that he wanted to meet up with, so he took a bus directly from the train station in the general direction of where they were, and so I was left alone at the train station with a freshly bought map of Verona (in italiano!) and a text message from Jen telling me to meet them at Castelvecchio. I march out of the station, not really sure in which direction I'm going, hoping to get my bearings by finding a main road and identifying it on the map. So as I'm at a street corner, map unfolded, I hear someone speaking to me - scusi, signore, ma Lei è un turista anche? - It's a girl about my age, accompanied by a boy aslo of my age. She had asked me if I was also a tourist. I tell her yes, and she says that they are, too, and that they don't know where they're going, and so she asks if they can follow me for a while, since I've got a map. I say sure, and so the three of us set off together. Oh, yeah, I still hadn't really gotten my bearings yet, so I still am not totally sure where we are. So after a few - questa via potrebb'essere... se non sbaglio... non sono certo... andiamoci! - from me, the girl stops another man we pass in a little piazza with gardens. I take out my map, which promptly falls apart, the map separating from the cover. Well, I give the map to the man, pocket the cover, and we establish for certain where we are, and where we're going. They want to go to the arena ( -c'è un arena? - I ask) but I need to meet the girls at Castelvecchio. It's pretty easy to get from one to the other, so we head towards Castelvecchio, where we will split up and go our separate ways.
On the walk we had some great conversation. I told them that I was from the United States, and they were instantly curious. - Quando Le sveglia nella mattina, che cosa vede dalla Sua finestra? - she asked me. That was possibly my favorite question. I told her that when I wake up in the morning, I see the woods outside of my window.
I asked them where they were from. She's from Sicilia, and he's from Trieste, which is great, he says, since he's so close to Slovenia, where cigarettes cost half of what they do in Italy! I tell him that I'll have to visit. They ask me about American universities, and I explain to them that there's a lot more choice in the courses that you take, but the workload is intense, and you've constantly got things to do. When I told them that I study theatre, they got really excited. It seems that not a lot of students actually study theatre in Italian universitie; if you want to go into the theatre, you go to a much more specialized sort of school. We walked at a leisurely pace, and the girl would get excited and stop at various things that caught her eye: some of the most lavish-looking gelato displays we'd ever seen, and a store that was displaying fairy figurines. - Mi piacciono tanto le fate! - she shouted. The whole walk was filled with questions, descriptions of where we all lived, and lots of smiles. We finally arrive at Castelvecchio, where Taber and Jen had been waiting probably for a decent while, do some quick introductions (she's Cristina, and he's Stefano), Jen takes a picture of us, and the Italians are off towards the arena. Thinking about them now, I still can't help smiling. They were so friendly and curious, and I felt comfortable talking with them in Italian. It was a little strange that Cristina (I'm not sure if Stefano did this) always adressed me as "signore" and used the formal, which is something that people generally do when talking with people of some sort of higher status or while conducting official business, although you can use it when talking to a stranger, but this was the first time that another young person used it while speaking with me. I was fortunately able to avoid the decision between tu and Lei ("you" informal and "you" formal) by just using voi ("you" plural).
The rest of the Verona trip was also very snazzy. The girls and I went then to the arena, which just happens to be the third largest Roman gladatorial arena. Not too shabby. There was (re-?)construction going on in the center, but we got to climb up into the audience and check it all out. Nowadays the arena is used for operas and ballets, but it was crazy to think of all the things that the people of the Roman empire saw in there: gladitorial fights, wild animals from regions they'd only dreamed of, and a heck a lot of blood. Times have changed, I suppose.
The next stop was the Piazza delle Erbe, where there used to be herb-selling markets. Now they've got all sorts of little stands and restaurants. The notable thing about this place is the frescos on the faces of the buildings. These are people's apartments now. How amazing would it be to live in the heart of Verona with a I-don't-know-how-many year-old fresco on your balcony? Pretty sweet. There's also a giant pillar with the Lion of St. Mark on the top at one end of the piazza. St. Mark is the patron saint of Verona, so you see those all over the place. Reminded me of high school, not going to lie. Go blue and white, what do we eat?, zebra meat!, yeah yeah yeah. We waited around there for a while before Adam showed up with his two friends, Ruma and Rachel. They're doing a program with UGA in Verona, which is not a bad deal at all. We had a lunch of paninis, and then Ruma had to go to some appointment, but not before we all went to see a big statue of Dante, who came to live in Verona after being exiled from Florence. So then it was the four Middkids and Rachel, who has an incredible memory for fun historical factoids. She had been on a brief tour of Verona, and basically recited everything back to us, which was fantastic, because we wouldn't have noticed so many details otherwise.
The next thing we wanted to see was the amphitheatre and monastery. On the way there, Rachel pointed out a big bridge spanning the river. It was mostly brick, but a large part of it was white stone. Apparetnly, the white stone is original from about 2500 years ago. We dubbed it the "Jesus Bridge" since it was around when Jesus was. Adam was really excited to walk on a bridge that Jesus had been on. We pointed out that Jerusalem is actually pretty far from Verona, but Taber pointed out that God wouldn't have let his only son die without seeing Italy, so clearly, Jesus had in fact walked on that bridge.
So anyway, we get to the amphitheatre and I just freak out. It's a Roman amphitheatre. Like the arena, I just marveled at how the Romans just really knew how to build things and we just plain don't. The acoustics are amazing, and seating isn't plush velvet, but it sure is easy. Everyone else started wandering up the stairs on the hillside towards the monastery, but I lingered in the amphitheatre, making sure to explore every crack and crevice before I ascended. It felt simply amazing.
Okay, this post is huge. Congrats for making it this far. I've covered my favorite things, so I'll start to wrap it up here. We went to see the monastery/archeological museum, Juliett's house, and a nice bar with awesome aperitivi. I think we did gelato, too. Anyway, I am definitely dragging my family back there when they come in July, because it was just that much fun and I want to do it all over again.
That's all for now, folks! Love to all!
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