UNIV 4940: verona

verona was a really cool town. i enjoyed it and i think that this is a city in italy where i would definitely live. i always thought id really like to live in florence, but i think verona is number one right now. it is a small town, but has a lot going on. there's incredible shopping and the streets are beautiful. all of the buildings have a lot of character, and i just really loved it!! PLUS there are the alps-my favorite mountains-sold!

view from the arena

verona has awesome shopping

verona was my expert of the day. we went to the arena first, which is still used today for famous operas in the summer time. it seats about 25,000, and is the 3rd largest in italy, colosseum being the largest. verona is the second largest city in the veneto region, after venice.

the park

i was not aware until i had to do research that verona is the setting for romeo and juliet. of course the story is completely fictional, but they have made a ton of money off of exploiting this. you can visit "juliet's house" and her tomb! yes, a tomb of a fake person. i guess it's pretty neat for shakespeare fans or something, but i don't really love seeing things that are totally fabricated out of nowhere.

papered wall

entrance to juliet's house

they said that this was juliet's house because there was a family that lived here with a similar last name to juliet in the play. it was totally renovated in 1930 to make it seem more like juliet's house. that's when the balcony was added. it's all fake. we didn't go inside, we just hung out in the courtyard.

juliet's balcony

juliet

after that we were let loose in the market to shop and look around. verona has a great little market and the main square is beautiful. i really liked the architecture in this town. it's known for its middle age architecture mixed with its ancient roman monuments. the city received the world heritage site status by UNESCO because of its urban structure and architecture.