Italian Adventure 2012 : Day 3 Verona

Today we planned to do the Boy Scout Verona Historic trail to see all the sites in Verona all in one day. We woke up early and headed to the bus stop and the heat was already insane. Keeping with the theme of things we decided to go to the train station to cut the trip in half instead of just riding the bus into Verona. Well the ticket was almost 10Euro for us to take 4 stops. We get to the train station and it is a real train station, not what we were thinking where the train comes every 10 minutes or so, the train was there waiting and we were standing in a long line. We missed the train and the next one wasn’t coming for 2-3 hours. So we hopped back on the bus and took the 1.5 hour journey back to Verona for another 20 Euro for one way. Needless to stay it was another slow start for us.

We finally got into Verona and grabbed a bite to eat at a street vendor and then some ice cream because it was so hot before beginning the trail walking through Portoni della Bra, a large gate leading into the city.

The buildings around this area were so beautiful and in the center or the square there was a nice fountain. On the other side of the fountain was the highlight for the boys, they got to see where the gladiators once fought in the Arena.

The Testers stepping into all parts of the world.

The boys pretending to be Gladiators, lol.

The next stop was to head down the narrow streets of Verona to Casa di Guilietta, to see what we all come to Verona for Juliette’s balcony and the statue of Juliette to apparently touch her boob for good luck. This was the best part since Ryan was a great sport and let me take a picture of him doing it. It was very busy here, but we didn’t go inside the actual house because the lines were very long and it was kinda pricey just to stand on the balcony to take a picture.

Awesome!!!

We continued back to the Piazza Erba where we grabbed a cold drink and the boys took a dip in the fountain. Very refreshing on a cold day, I kept to the shade as much as possible while checking out the street vendors.

We grabbed a few souvenirs and then went along the rest of the trail, stopping by Casa di Romeo, which was not as popular as Juliette’s house.

Danny reading the histroy to the boys for this part of the trail.

We made our way through the lovely streets and by many Piazza’s before reaching the end, the river where one of the oldest bridges still stands, Ponte della Pietra. This bridge was built in ancient Roman times. It was destroyed many times by floods, such as major ones in 1154 and 1239. After these floods the bridge had nearly disappeared, and it underwent a big change which has given it the name “Ponte Pietra”, meaning stone bridge. The little remains of the ancient Roman bridge can be seen at the left bank of the river in form of the two large archways (very light colored stone). **After several restoration attempts the bridge’s appearance was altered drastically. Its dramatic arching from with the five asymmetrical archways underneath respect the current of the river. Because of the sharp bend in the river, the current flows more quickly towards the left bank Here the bridge rests on 4 stone “bows” built to slice through the current where it’s at its strongest. In the thirteenth century Alberto I della Scala had the “Torri di Guardia” (Watch Tower) built, which had the purpose to defend the bridge. The most recent damage done to the bridge happened in World War II when the Germans left the city they destroyed all the bridges behind them. But also after this, the bridge was rebuilt as it had been documented with photos shortly before the bombing of the bridge. With its asymmetrical structure and the profile of a donkey’s back crossing the Adige River, the “Stone Bridge” has always been a true symbol of the city.

After admiring the river we had to yet again find a gellato place to grab ice cream for the 3^rd time today for the boys. Mommy is trying to be good since I cannot go to my awesome workout classes, which I am missing. The boys stopped by the fountain again to cool off and then we headed back to the bus stop where we were looking forward to the air conditioned bus ride home.

We got one the bus purchased our tickets back to the camp and realized quickly there was no AC on this bus, lol, REALLY??? We thankfully had a few fans to keep cool and then tried to get some rest on our journey back.

When we got back to our bungalow changed into our swimsuits and headed to the pool to cool off. The boys had a lot of fun with daddy in the pool while mommy tried to catch some sun and catch up on the blog a bit.

We stayed until the pool closed and then grabbed dinner to go from the restaurant and headed over to the bar to watch the night shows and grab a few drinks. Dinner again was not that great, but nothing else bad to say about this place. The boys played in the game room for a couple hours with some kids they met (language is never an issue with kids). We headed back to the room at about 11pm and called it a night.

RYAN'S CORNER:

Verona was a beautiful city. We did a historic trail for scouts. It took us about 2-3 hours to finish it. When we got back we played mini golf. Then after me and my brother finished our game we went to the pool. At the pool I did new super mario bros, medatation, and laying down. It was really fun. Today me and my brother also saw a baby bunny. It was really cute. Today was really fun.