Romeo Romeo, where thou art Romeo

This weekend was amazing. I took at train to Verona at 2 in the afternoon on Saturday. The ride took a little over three hours. I listened to a little "Blue Eyes" while we whipped through the beautiful countryside. When I arrived I headed for what I thought was the ticket booth for the Opera, but got lost so I asked a girl on the street and she pointed me into the right direction. Once I found the Arena, I picked up me Opera ticket and went looking for my hostel. The hostel was supper nice but very hot. The lady took me to my room and I felt like I was going through a maze. The room was on the top floor at the very back of the building. She showed me my bed (I was staying in a dorm with other girls) it was on the top floor of a loft in the corner. I met the girl staying next to me. Her name is Helen and she is from Kent even though she now lives in London. She is 24 and just traveling around Europe for 4 weeks. Last year she traveled Asia for eight months! So I guess you could say she's an experienced backpacker. After I changed clothes (and tried to get cool) I went to the main piazza where the arena was to try and find dinner. I settled on a pizza place and ordered a slice to go. I went across the street and had a picnic in the park next to a fountain. The pizza was very strange for Italy because it tasted like Pizza Hut (not as good though)-which means there was a lot of bread and it was thick. Normal Italian pizza is very thin and almost runny in the middle. I headed inside the arena just before 8:30 to find a good seat. The ampitheater had hard stone seating so I brought my towel to sit on. I found a perfect seat just off stage right and tried to get comfortable. The Opera was La Bohiem by Puccini and was amazing. I read the summary before I came so that I would have an idea of what was going on. This was helpful and I managed to keep up with the performers. It lasted just a little over 3 hours but was worth the train ride and the non air conditioned hostel. The next day (Sunday) I had to check out by nine, so I went for breakfast in Piazza Erbe. I took my time drinking my cappuccino and did a little people watching. After breakfast a spent the rest of the morning looking at local vendors products in the piazza, trying on clothes in nice air conditioned stores. At 11:30 I went to the castle in the middle of the city, which was built for the Lord of Verona during the Medival Times. It is now a wonderful art museum that has many works from the 13th-14th centuries. After my art tour I went back to Piazza Bra to meet my new friend, Helen for lunch. We had a great conversation about traveling and family and then walked around Verona for awhile. We went to Juilet's(from Romeo and Juliet) famous balcony and saw the outside of her house. (this is the house of the family that inspired the famous tale which Shakespear made into the classic story we know today). I had a few hours to spare after lunch so I went to Piazza Erbe and walked around and had some interesting conversations with some vendors. There was an older brother and sister that I talked to for awhile (both in Italian and English) and eventually bought some things from. At 3:30 I walked to the train station and rode the train back to beautiful Torino. I arrived around 9 and made it home in time to eat dinner with the family. We are gearing up for the last two days before they leave so you can feel excitement (and tension) in the air. I loved visiting Verona and even though I didn't find my Romeo, I found a wonderful city full of memories.

PS All the Verona pictures are posted