Almost right in the middle of northern Italy, before heading into the mountains, is Verona, my next stop. Verona was arguably made famous by a certain Shakespeare play, more on that in a bit, but Verona also has a pretty long history that’s not fictitious.

My hotel is situated such that I stroll into town right by the historic main gate, Porta Nuova, and then through the Portini della Brà where you’re almost immediately confronted with Verona’s main attraction, the Roman Arena.

The Roman Arena was built in the first century AD. It’s only the eighth biggest amphitheatre in the Roman empire, but it predates the Colosseum and it’s in really great shape. Probably because they maintain it so well so they can have their annual opera festival here.

There was a fairly significant line to get inside the arena, but it went fast and it was worth it. On a side note, since the calendar flipped over to April, the number of people in this country has increased by a lot and hotel/hostel prices have about doubled. Good thing I came early!

The four arches of the outer ring are all that’s left of it, maybe that’s a good thing because the views from the top of the arena are pretty good. Anyway, for centuries pieces of it were stripped away for building material. So if you buy a place in Verona, it just might have pieces of an ancient Roman Arena in the walls or foundation.

The pink marble that they used to make the arena is really pretty too. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one of these places with so much of it.

On Piazza delle Erbe, which used to be the Roman Forum, is the 12th century Torre dei Lamberti, Verona’s stairmaster. The views from the top were amazing, but ironically, not the best Verona had to offer in my opinion. More on that further down.

Verona sits next to the beautiful and wide Adige River. There are several bridges that get you to the other side, but Ponte Pietra has the best story by far. The two arches on the right in the pic below are 1st century BC Roman. The three on the left are medieval replacements from the 13 century. The bridge was completely destroyed by German troops in 1945 and the Italians spent most of the 1950’s fishing the pieces out of the river and rebuilding it stone by ancient stone. Awesome!

Across Ponte Pietra on the other side of the Adige is Verona’s other big Roman site, Teatro Romano. The theatre was here long before the arena, in the 1st century BC and is in a bit worse shape. It does have a great archeological museum with terrific views attached to it, though, so I guess it’s ok.

As good as the view was from the Museo Archeologico, up above that at the terrace of Castel San Pietro, it was even better.

Along the way I took the time to visit Verona’s four ancient churches, all built in the 12th to 13th centuries and full of some amazing frescoes and a few oddities. Cattedrale di Santa Maria Matricolare, also just known as Duomo, is Verona’s main cathedral. Inside you can see some of the original Roman mosaic flooring.

Basilica di Sant’Anastasia is Verona’s biggest church and has an overwhelming amount of cool frescoes inside, including a very unusual and famous fresco, St George and the Princess.

There’s also this famous holy water font from 1495. It was carved by Gabriele Caliari, the father of Veronese, a famous Venetian painter whose work I saw a lot of in Venice. They say it’s good luck to rub his hunchback. He looks like he’s struggling, though. That’s because he’s been waiting for everyone to stop rubbing his back and take that font off of it for over 500 years.

Chiesa di San Fermo Maggiore was built in the 13th century over the original 11th century Romanesque church so as not to disturb the remains of St Fermo buried there. So downstairs you can visit that original, now subterranean, church with it’s very very old frescoes. This was probably my favorite.

The fresco of St Francis (below left) is considered by art historians to be the oldest known depiction of him in the world. Wow! That’s St Christopher (below right), he’s mine, the patron saint of travelers.

And the 12th century Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore sits at the far west end of historic Verona. The best part was the awesome bronze medieval doors on the inside.

Now the real reason most people come to Verona, to see the setting of one of the most famous plays ever written, Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. Nothing says tourist trap quite like waiting in line and paying money to get your picture taken on a real balcony on a real house where an epic romance between two fictitious horny teenagers never happened. To each their own, I guess. Just look at that crowd! I spent all of about thirty seconds in there and then ran away. Haha!

There’s also a statue of the fictitious Juliet in there. Everyone crowds around to get a picture of themselves with their hands on Juliet’s boobs (yes, really). I’m not sure when or why all the boob touching started, but it’s, well, it is. Ha! Zoom in on the pic above just to the left of the balcony to see it in action. The pic below I took in the fraction of a nanosecond between people copping a feel.

Meanwhile, back in Roman times, there are two really cool old Roman gates incorporated into the modern city. Porta Leoni now sits along the side of a building.

Porta Borsari was once the main entrance to the Roman city, now it’s the main entrance to a pedestrian street of high end shops and gelaterias.

There’s also the Arco di Gavi, which sits next to the 14th century Castelvecchio. It was a privately built arch by the Gavia family who lived here in Roman times. Pretty impressive!

Castelvecchio was built in the 14th century by Cangrande II along the banks of the Adige River. I’m not sure about most of it’s history or even who Cangrande II is, but I know that now it’s a medieval art museum and you can walk around the ramparts which is always cool.

The first of my two day trips from Verona was to nearby Soave, to the east. It’s known primarily as a wine region. I’m not really interested in wine and the description I read about the wine is that it’s “not winning any awards”. So no, I went to see the incredible castle overlooking the medieval walled town.

The castle was built by the murderous Scaligeri family and the main tower (above right) was used as a dungeon. During restoration work they apparently found the bottom of the tower filled with human bones about two meters deep. Gruesome!

I much prefer the views of the surrounding vineyards from the top of the tower.

The second day trip was all about hiking. The goal, Santuario Madonna della Corona, a church built way up into the side of a cliff. Awesome! First you take a train ride to tiny Peri along the same Adige River that runs by Verona. Then you must walk the long lonely walk of loneliness two and a half miles through two other tiny towns to the trailhead. At least the views are nice.

After the long lonely walk of loneliness you must hike the high steep mountain of steepness. This is what happens when you don’t name your mountain, I name it for you.

Assuming you made it this far, you must now ascend the never-ending stone steps of doom.

Finally, you reach the church in the side of a cliff, the Santuario Madonna della Corona. And if you can’t for some reason, embark on the arduous journey I just described… no worries, there’s a road, you can just drive there.

Honestly, the church wasn’t really spectacular on the inside, other than the west wall and the alter being exposed rock. This church is all about location, location, location. After eating some lunch and enjoying the views, it was time to head down and back to Verona for a well deserved dinner.

This Italian adventure just seems to go on forever, but would you believe I only have two more stops to make? Only two more posts to write? It’s true, so keep that internet warm because there’s more to come…