It's a love story, baby just say yes! (VERONA)

Verona!!

Woke up eaaarly since we were the 1st shift to breakfast this morning. I took one last shower (trying to get in as many as I can before going back to our freezing/oldschool one), then went downstairs for breakfast. I wasn’t really in the mood for bread again, so I just downed a bunch of cups of coffee. The coffee at this hotel is SO good!!

We packed up, walked around Padova for a few minutes on the search for fruit (mission failed), then were on our way to Verona!


I jammed out to Taylor Swift the whole way, pretty much listening to “Love Story” on repeat to prepare for Juliet's house (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTNSwOFUf30) and throwing in a "Club Love" every now and then, too (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_17b2dVDTbg). 


It was a little over an hour away, so we got there around 10 and had a mini bus tour with our guide, Michelangelo, around the walls of Verona. After about 30 minutes of the bus tour, we got out and walked around for another hour and a half, visiting all kinds of exciting sights!!

Me, Tara, Lo, Katie, and Ally at the Arena

We began in the square (their Roman Arena), and luckily we had a 15 minute bathroom break. That coffee was getting to me, so Ally and I literally sprinted to the bathroom to be first in line. Unfortunately we ran right past it, so we had to wait in line anyways! Most public bathrooms here cost money (lame), so we paid the 70 cents and then were on our way. We still had a few minutes to kill before meeting back with the tour guide, so we stopped in a cute little coffee shop right off the Arena to get a capuccino and some breakfast (since I didn't eat any bread at the hotel). It was probably the best capuccino I've had so far! SOOO GOOD. And it was a perfect pick me up before we continued the tour.

Michelangelo, our tour guide, knew exactly what we all wanted to see - Juliet's house. So we spent just a few minutes talking about the square, then headed straight to the famous balcony. Now remember, this group is composed of 48 girls and 2 boys. It was madness. All the girls were freaking out trying to write on the walls and leave their mark among the millions (probably more) of names and wishes already there (which was alot, by the way - check out the pictures). I went crazy trying to take as many pictures as I could. It was so beautiful, you could feel the energy of all the people who had been there in the past, leaving their little memories and hopes for love.

I tried to look past the insanity of the tons and tons of initials and find little notes or sayings people left. It was so interesting, I found the coolest stuff. It was crazy to think about all the wishes and love notes that people had left on the walls that no one ever saw because they were just glancing at the big picture, not looking past the chaos into the love that went into every single marking. People did anything to get their message across - most of the pieces of paper were stuck on by chewed up gum. People even skipped out on the paper part and would chew gum, stick it on the wall, then write their initials/quote/note directly on the gum! It was amazing how much effort people put into it, how important love was to them.

We didn't have much time (our tour guide was a guy and seemed annoyed that we were all in love with THE place of love), so we kept moving with the tour and decided to come back during our free time later.

holla OHS!

We kept walking through Verona, and I kept falling more and more in love with the city. It was beautiful - the colors, buildings, and general feeling of the city was amazing. I was ready to move there! We went by the Scala Family Tomb and Castle (I specifically remember this from the last time I was in Verona because their gates looked like the Orchard House symbol!!), Romeo's house, a bunch of squares (one with a big Dante statue), the Verona Arena, and ended the tour there. We had a few hours of free time, so (obviously) Katie, Ally, Tara, Lo and I headed straight back to Juliet's house.

my addition to the wall!

On the way we passed by some cool artwork on the streets. One of the smaller paintings I fell in love with and had to buy - luckily it was only 10 euro woo! A great sovenier from Verona. We got back to Juliet's ready this time - we had all written a "Letter to Juliet" (yes we're lame like the movie, you're jealous) and slid them into the walls and tin mailbox on the side of the house. So fun:) I left a little note on the walls as well, just a little quote that I've recently fallen in love with (thanks, ZTS..) that's on the right for you to take a looksie at. I wish I could get across the energy and atmosphere of this little walled in space, it's incredible. Hopefully the pictures do it justice.

We grabbed a quick lunch at a yummy restaurant down a side street, had some wine to prepare for the long bus ride home, then were on our way back to meet the group. We gave ourselves plenty of time to stop in the shops along the road, but sadly it was siesta time (1 - 4 pm in Italy they nap/don't work - do they ever work here??), so we mozied down the streets window shopping.

We passed by a to-die-for looking chocolate shop that was luckily open! We stopped in and I tried the ciccolato calda, the Italian version of hot chocolate. Literally, it's like drinking chocolate fondue. It's rich, thick, steaming hot just-been-melted chocolate. I could only drink about 1/3 of mine because it was sooooooo rich!! Literally you had to use a spoon to drink it if you waited more than 10 minutes because it would start to harden into solid chocolate. It was sooooo yummy though oh my goodness!

We met back at the Arena and took lots more pictures there. This is where I sang with Greater Richmond Children's Choir when I came in 7th grade with Dabney, my mom, and Peggy!! It was so cool to be back and see what I remembered and how different everything looked from how I remembered. The acoustics in the Arena are perfect - that I do remember. It sounded so gorgeous when we sang in there. They hold lots of concerts, operas, and shows in their arena because the sound is literally perfect in every single seat. Our guide had told us that so many famous bands had played there - Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, etc. So cool!

We decided to run in the bathroom before getting on the 7 hour bus ride back to Rome (with no bathroom on the bus ah!), so we went into a little trattoria near the arena. They let us use the bathrooms without buying anything (unusual for the Veneto area), then offered us free ice skating tickets to the rink outside!! I was SO sad to turn them down, because we all know how much I adore ice skating. But the bus was leaving so we couldn't accept them :(

ciccolato calda YUM

The bus ride home was long, boring, and made me realize how exhausted I actually was. We made one stop about half way home, but other than that it was nonstop driving. I listened to some more tswift, watched the Britney episode of Glee (YES MY FAV - psgleestartsbackinaweekyay), and slept most of the way. The plan was to read for class, but I was way too tired and dizzy to do that so I put it off for tomorrow.

We got home around 10:30, waited for bus 280 at the stop for a good bit, then finally made it home around 11:15. What a fun and exciting weekend!! I'm definitely not ready for another week of school - oh well, just have to push through until next weekend's journey to Prague!