Day 2 - Verona and Venice

After a much needed night of rest we walked along the lake, around the end of the peninsula. The morning air was crisp, but the sun was warm. We walked through the gardens of a very nice (and way over our budget) hotel. Then we made our way back into the downtown area near the castle. We plopped ourselves down in the square facing the castle with a hot cappuccino and a warm croissant. What a magnificent morning!

We left Sirmione mid-morning winding through small towns along SS11 and the northern wine country along A4 arriving in the city of Romeo and Juliet, Verona, around 11:30am. The city was humming with weekend tourists. We parked the car and walked to the Piazza Bora where the Arena was in the midst of some restoration work. This is one of the finest arenas in all of Italy. Built in the First Century A.D. it is left with only 4 of its original outer archways, but it was easy to imagine the former grandeur of the place. Today it holds 22,000 people for modern operas. We could only imagine what it would be like to see a show in this kind of forum. From the arena we walked down the busy shopping district of Via Mazzini to the Piazza Erbe, which houses an open air market on weekends. Anything and everything you could possibly imagine is for sale here - from fresh fruit and flowers to tourist souvenirs. You name it, you got it. We ate freshly baked calzones standing in the warm Verona sun.

We wound our way through more wine country, passing some incredible walled villas on our way to Venice. Along the way we stopped for fuel, which always seems to provide an interesting experience for those not familiar with the ways of the country. It was pay at the pump Italian style. And in this particular case, this meant pre-paying by putting your money into one machine and pumping the fuel out of another. Apparently, the attendants are on a break akin to the Mexican Siesta around 2:00pm. It took some time for the foreigners, myself and a French gentleman, to figure this out!

We arrived in Venice around 3:00pm and found a place to sleep with the help of the hotel information booth  at the edge of the city. When reserving a hotel in Venice (at the last minute), you pay half the amount up-front to the attendant at the information booth plus a small fee and the remainder when you arrive at the hotel. Also, you must park your car in the pay lot on the out-skirts of the city. After negotiating these rules, we packed a day's worth of clothes (and camera gear - ouch!) into daypacks and headed into the city on foot. The map provided by the hotel information booth helped us find our way to the Hotel Minerva. Our room was located across the street from the main lobby. It had three, rather narrow beds but it was inexpensive with the bathroom facilities down the hall. We settled in and then strode out into the then raining streets of Venice. We procured a couple bottles of red wine and some salami to go with our cheese from the Verona market and morning fresh bread from Sirmione. Then we dashed through the rain back to our room and had ourselves a simple, yet delicious, Italian meal. After dinner and two bottles of wine we wandered the Calles and Rias of the Venetian night. Venice is romantic and beautiful at night. The views of the Piazza San Marco and the Santa Maria della Salute are amazing. I spent several roles of film in this one evening.