Juliet Juliet Wherefore Art Thou?

Verona has a romantic resonance with many. People flock here to visit Casa di Giulietta (Juliet of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet). We saw this firsthand yesterday. The whole thing was tourist fairy fluff. The house was not Juliet's, the statue was not Juliet and no one really knew how the "rub the right breast for luck" originated but as we were suckers for marketing, we decided to go the whole hog. This time we bought prepaid timed tickets for the first slot at 9am and were in line by 0845. Might as well practice for our upcoming Disney trip. It was a decent amount of money just to take a photo and to rub a statue's right breast but we were not a family to be deterred! We squeezed it in right before we had to be at the meeting point for our cooking class today.

Yes! 3rd group in line

Statue of "Juliet"

Rub the right breast kids!!!

The "balcony" that was only added in the 20th century!

You have to pay to leave a message for Juliet...

Walking to our cooking class. Portoni della Bra

Piazza Bra from another angle

Didn't need to rush after all. Had time for our daily cioccolata con panna

This time around, we did something we had never done before. We hired a planner to help us with aspects of our trip, namely finding activities/tours that were good or available during the Christmas period. So far so good. Teresa, our planner, had organised both e-bike tours, as well as our cooking class. The cooking class was one of the best things we had every done as a family. The children LOVED it! Our guide/chef was so awesome. A local from Verona, Cristina was fun, funny and passionate! She not only gave handy tips, but chatted away about life, told us stories, and happily answered all our questions. We discovered that the children were actually decent at cooking. The recipes were simple (I'll be honest here and say that I was sceptical at first) but the end product was so delicious. I hate to sound cliched but it was the case of letting the ingredients shine through. We made three dishes. The first was a wine risotto that was typical Veronese. We also made our own fresh pasta from scratch as well as a tomato and rosemary sauce from scratch. The last dish was the classic tiramisu. We were so full after eating our creations. 

The kitchen, our workspace, and dining table

Jonah helping prepare the stock

Making the tiramisu "cream"

It really was that good. She gave us permission to lick the bowls after lol

Time to chop onions for both the risotto and the pasta sauce. "Not fine enough. Keep going!!" she said 😅

Making our own fresh pasta

The wine for our risotto. Had to be the right wine

Eating our risotto. Elliot said this was the only risotto that he has ever liked. 

We had to trust Jonah with our pasta

The end product. Molto bene said Cristina! Amazing taste, texture and bite

Jonah also did the cocoa dusting for tiramisu

Very light. Not too sweet, not too much coffee

The amazing Cristina!

We had a few more things to tick off our list which we did reasonably efficiently. It was nice to actually walk. We rested in the evening with the aim to venture out again for the New Year's fireworks but I strongly suspect we won't make it...yet again!

Ticking off the last things on our list. Castelvecchio and the attached bridge

Fair Verona

View from the Arena looking back at Piazza Bra

Somehow, we managed to deposit luggage and people to our hotel at Verona and return the car to Verona without mishap. The 1881 Luxury Suites is right next to the arena, super modern and comfortable, with handy automated entry and exit. It is a block of 6 apartments with a lift and we'd recommend it if staying in Verona. We were able to let ourselves in for luggage storage in the morning before "checking in" officially at 3pm which really was only to wait until the apartment was ready after cleaning. They notified us on whatsapp as soon as the apartment was ready.

The rain that was present at Lake Garda yesterday stayed with us in Verona, albeit not too heavy thankfully. We had today to see most of the sights, so soldier on we did with our trusty raingear! Our 2 minute takeaway on Verona...a truly charming city at the elbow of the River Adige, also known as Little Italy (lots of roman antiquities including the iconic Roman Arena) and most famously known as the setting of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. We finally encountered something in Verona which we had not really encountered thus far in Italy...lines. Yes, you read correctly. Lines in winter. Every man and his dog seemed to be out and about, literally. There were dogs everywhere with their owners everywhere!! There was a line to enter the Arena and there was a LONG line to enter Juliet's House. What?!! We had to quickly rejig our plans. Fortunately the line to enter the Roman Arena was not too bad.

We covered as much of the old town on foot as we could before taking the funicular up to Castello San Pietro. The original plan was to do it for sunset, but there were not going to be any sunsets today...from here there is a view of Verona with the river and it would have been spectacular with clear skies. A semi hazy view was the best we could get but it was better than nothing! 

We ended our day with a respite from the rain in the shops lining Via Mazzini. We called it quits after this and chilled at our apartment with a family movie night.

Automated light sensors

Modernised interiors in an old building

The Arena and Piazza Bra in the background. Prepwork was underway for the free NYE party here tomorrow night

On the upper level of the Arena

Opera's were staged here. Perhaps one day we will come back and watch one when it is not raining!

Piazza Bra

Via Mazzini, the main shopping street with many high end stores

We chose our treasure here...

Gigantic coke bottle candy. What could be better?!

A gigantic strawberry marshmallow

The very pretty Piazza Delle Erbe

The remains of Porta Leoni, an ancient Roman gate. Verona was a roman city in the 1st century BC

View of the city from the other side of the Adige River

Going up on the funicular. We could have walked...but nah!

City of Verona!

On the restored Roman bridge, Ponte Pietra

Pretty facades everywhere 

Basilica di Santa Anastasia

Let's get dry for a  bit

Piazza dei Signori. Also known as Piazza Dante (the man himself in the background)

Rain Enforced Rest

Our run of good weather had finally come to an end and we were hit with rain. Grand plans to go up a cable car for snowshoeing was scrapped today. A suggestion to visit Gardaland was also hotly debated but was ultimately vetoed. We drove past and there was no one else there...Even the locals called it quits. All the Christmas market stalls were closed early. 

What better time to do...laundry! There was also university courses to enrol in, movies to watch, games to play, bodies to rest and afternoon naps to be had. 

Tomorrow we will press unpause as we move on to Verona!

Our highlight today...breakfast! Yes if mum has waffles with chocolate and ice-cream for breakfast it is permission for the kids to follow suit

Right below the apartment and pretty darn good waffles. Even better, we got 15% off the bill!

Lake Garda

Today's aim was to see the furthest sights first and work our back. With the fog cleared today we could actually see the other side of the lake! We took the scenic lakeside route all the way to Riva del Garda on the northern shore. We had a FedEx stop to make to try and recover our Gopro. The helpful local gave us a better option of using a broker which more than halved our cost so that was definitely a worthwhile stop! From there we continued north to Lake Tenno. We could see how this would be a fantastic swimming spot in summer. The water was so clear and a lovely hue of blue. From there we continued on to the medieval village of Canale di Tenno. The original layout of this 1200s village remains. The village was abandoned after the war but was restored in the 60s due to artists. Parking was a challenge. We only just found a spot on the narrow mountain roads, and this was low season with hardly anyone around. Not sure how people visit in the summer months with some major mountain walking!!

Our beloved Ford "Pocus". Yup that seats 7, or 5 people + 4 big suitcases

Mountainside villages enroute

Lake Tenno

Canale di Tenno

Much of the original village has been preserved

Turin painter Giacomo Vittone after whom this house is named

Views down to Lake Garda 

We had two more mountain side perched buildings to visit, the first was the castle of Arco. We could NOT find a parking spot that didn't require a walk of less than 1km UPHILL. Somehow, we had also lost a lot of time with sunlight fading. We cut our losses, took some photos, grabbed a quick lunch and made our way to the next stop.

By the time we arrived at the carpark of the Sanctuary of Madonna della Corona, it was already 1630. There was a decent downhill walk finishing with a long flight of stairs before reaching the cave entrance. In the summer months, there was a shuttle bus. We had to use our legs. We're still not sure how our timing for the day was so off, but to view the sanctuary from afar was the best we could do if we wanted to avoid walking back in the dark. We also wanted to minimise our time driving down narrow windy roads with mad Italian drivers at night. It was a somewhat disappointing to only scratch the surface but perhaps this was an opportunity to return in the warmer months. Lake Garda has certainly been enjoyable even in winter so far. On the upside, the rapid downhill and uphill hike counted as my aerobic exercise for the day!

Arco

Sanctuary of Madonna della Corona

Consoling ourselves with what has become a lovely ritual. Pre-dinner drinks!