I went to Verona for two days. I do not know the language of Italian, but I may as well: it seems nearly identical to Spanish, which I do know. Most of the written Italian around the city was mildly comprehensible to me. I feel like I know Italian better than I know Hungarian.
This city is so old. I visited an ancient Roman arena, an ancient Roman theater, and two medieval castles. (It seems every European city has to have a castle; Verona has two.) One of the castles now contains an art museum, in which I saw a large collection of paintings, sculptures, and frescoes (although, in my opinion, the theme of Jesus was overdone). I also went to a photography museum located in an ancient Roman ruin. It was surreal to be able to see a crumbling stone archway and photos from the filming of Planet of the Apes at the same time.
I also visited a house which was supposedly inhabited by Juliet (from the Shakespeare play). I'm pretty sure Romeo and Juliet is a work of fiction, but apparently the house still manages to attract quite a lot of visitors. The house was made into a museum about Romeo and Juliet. There was a statue of Juliet outside the house, and I guess there is a tradition whereby people grope the statue's right breast for some reason. Juliet's tomb is also somewhere in Verona, but I didn't go see it.
I love Italian-cuisine food in America; now I know that I also love Italian-cuisine food in Italy. With the exception of one pasta dish that had a weird sauerkraut sauce, everything I ate here was unbelievably delicious. I had gnocchi (potato dumplings) with meat sauce one night, and I had beef tortellini the next night; both were exquisitely soft, almost fluffy, but definitely not mushy. I enjoyed the pizza very much; it was crunchy and thin, and I think it's incomparable with American pizza. The risotto with red-wine cream sauce is now the second purple food that I have tried and liked. Horse meat is a traditional Veronese dish; I never ordered any for myself, but I tried it when my friend got it. It tasted mostly like beef, but a little tougher.
I love ice cream, so of course the gelato was to die for (figuratively). It seemed like every street corner had a gelateria, and I just couldn't help myself. I ate chocolate gelato, tiramisu gelato, and nutella gelato. Another dessert I tried and loved was panna cotta, which was kind of like crème brûlée without the blow-torching.
The city's architecture was the most breathtaking I've ever seen. I saw astonishingly beautiful buildings every time I turned a corner. Verona's river, the Adige, was gorgeous and stunning and calm and blue. I love looking at water, and the Adige is the most beautiful water I've ever looked at. I still have to organize my photographs, and I'll post some of them as soon as I do.
4 comments:
I wish I was there with you. The architecture and castles sound beautiful, as does the scenery. And the food sounds SOOO yummy!! I will have to find some recipes for some of it so you can eat like a European when you come home for winter break. I can't wait to see your pictures!!
It's vaguely creepy that you remember which specific breast was to be groped. Did something bad happen if you groped the wrong breast?
Also, when I was in Rome I also experienced the billions-of-gelaterias phenomenon. It was delicious. At the first gelateria I went to, which was across the street from the Pantheon, one of the flavors they were selling was bright blue and labeled "Viagra". I don't know whether this was a) a mistranslation, b) false advertising, or c) there actually was Viagra in it, but perhaps regrettably, I didn't taste it to find out.
I remember which breast was to be groped because it was the one that was discolored and worn down on the statue. I feel bad for that statue.
Also, Viagra gelato sounds a little bit terrifying.
Nutella gelato?!?!? Yum!
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