Two households, both alike in dignity (In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),

 From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,  Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

 From forth the fatal loins of these two foes  A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;

 Whose misadventured piteous overthrows  Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.”

So begins William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”  

Verona is popular spot, even if just for a day trip. Shakespeare must have known what he was doing since he placed a few plays there. There’s a great line in the movie “Shakespeare in Love” when Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow) tells her nurse about the new play that takes place in Verona. The nurse replies, “Uh, Verona again?”

I took a bus from the train station to my Airbnb apartment, not even a ten-minute ride. I hopped off, followed the map to my street and there it was: the tourist horde, waiting in line to see Juliet’s balcony. 

My apartment was right in the heart of the historic center and a five-minute walk from the House of Juliet, she of the aforementioned Shakespeare tragedy. The balcony, where she stood after meeting Romeo and delivered the “wherefore art thou” speech, is inside a courtyard, connected to the main street by a walkway.

It’s just a simple balcony, and it’s part of the House of Juliet museum. I’m not sure what could be in a museum of a fictional character from a 14^th-century play. And then there’s the bronze statue of the 13-year-old herself with a very worn and shiny right breast, since part of the experience of visiting here is to touch it to bring you good fortune in love, so the myth goes. I read that 10 years ago, the city had to remove the statue because there were cracks in her arm and breast from so many people touching it. They put up a replacement and renovated the original.

I also recently re-watched “Letters from Juliet,” just because I wanted to do a comparison of movie v. reality. Yes, it’s cheesy. So what. It’s fun and it’s Verona! Let’s all be hopeless romantics for a few hours.

After elbowing my way through the crowd, I found my street, checked in the apartment and relaxed for a minute before heading out, city map in hand, to discover Verona.

Two minutes from my door was Piazza delle Erbe, a very big square that holds an open air market every day. There’s just about everything for sale there: touristy T-shirts, refrigerator magnets, chotchkeys, placemats and even a big cup of fruit. In the evening, the booths close up, the tourists are gone and the piazza turns into a much quieter and calmer place to maybe have an aperitivo or even dinner.  

I received a lunch recommendation at a place that, unfortunately was closed that day. So I stopped in a bakery and grocery story to get something quick for lunch. Bakeries in Italy are my happy places. I have a real weakness for bread and any of its iterations, like pizza, foccaccia and taralli. I scored here.

Then I went shopping. Verona was pretty hot and all I had were hiking leggings and pants. I went to the nearby department store, COIN, made fast friends with the clerks helping me and they even looked up this blog on their phones so I better mention them now. Hello Valentina from COIN!

It was fun to meet the locals, as I always do. And it was especially nice meeting them here since I was right in the middle of a tourist area.

Got back to the apartment, ate dinner, checked on my injured and painful big toes (remember my toe issue from the mountains?) watched some TV and crashed.

The next day my friend Maria, from Cincinnati, arrived from Venice. Her apartment was just a few doors down from me. We found a great place for lunch and both ordered Amarone risotto and some scallops. Here’s one thing I wasn’t expecting: you can still smoke in Verona. We were sitting outside and a lady at the table next to ours was smoking a cigarette.  Yes, it was annoying. We persevered.

From there, we bought a ticket for admission to four churches. We started with Basilica of Sant’ Anastasia, where I discovered hunchbacks that hold up holy water basins.

Then we took a cable car up a hill to see the panorama of Verona. The river in the foreground with the towers and the city behind it was spectacular.

On our way back to the center of the city, we stopped at a recommended bar for an aperitivo. It was boring. No good food. We had one drink and went in search of another place. And we found Bar Romeo, which was great! Our waiter Francesco was chatty and fun. We had a few drinks, ate some snacks and wandered again until we found a great place for dinner, right next to a monument, in a piazza. One of the best things about wandering a city in Italy: you come across a great restaurant right next to a monument, in a piazza.

The next day we took a day trip to nearby Padua (more on Padua below). Back in Verona, we walked back from the train station via the big Piazza Bra, home of the arena. This piazza is so big and wide, You walk along and then you’re under an archway that looks like it was part of a castle. Verona feels regal wherever you go. One of these days, one of these summer evenings, I am going to see an opera in the arena. I don’t think it’s as tough to get a ticket anymore, and you can even get one the the day of the performance, so said the gentleman at the souvenir shop.

Except for my afternoon at the department store and our waiters, Maria and I didn’t really meet Veronese, likely because of where we were staying. The city is wonderful but we didn’t get a taste of local life, something I always like to do when I travel to Italy. “I love a walkable city, which (Verona) was,” Maria said. “It’s definitely worth visiting, even though there is somewhat of a touristy feel to it.”

PADUA

We decided to go to Padua (Padova in Italian) because neither of us have been there before. Padua is a big college town. We walked straight up the main street, lined with cafes and restaurants full of university students. Want to feel old? Hang out here. That street ends in Padua’s grand “Prato delle Valle,” a large piazza with a canal and a grassy island. I’ve not seen anything like it in any other city in Italy. We ate lunch at a place right on the Prato.

It was a lovely couple of days in two beautiful cities. Next: we head east to Trieste!