Thursday, 3 August 2006
I arrived in the Porta Nuova Station late afternoon (17:30), after having visited Venice.
It took me a good while to get my bearings right and walked along the road that would carry me to the centre of the town. First I had dinner at a pizza house, and some ice cream afterwards. Then, after passing by a park, I came to a Roman amphitheatre--one of the largest in Italy. At this time of the day, the amphitheatre was already closed, but in the summer months, the amphitheatre hosted quite a few operas--someone from my physics department, in fact, saw Verdi's Aïda in Verona.
There was a rather trendy shopping street on the back of the amphitheatre, pedestrianised. Following it, I ended up in the vicinity of Casa di Giulietta, which closed about 5 minutes before I arrived (this house has nothing to do with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet). Walking south-west, past the Loggia del Consiglio (the old town hall, etc.), I came to a great Roman gate. Upon the Palazzo degli Scaligeri and a glimpse of the Duomo beside the river bank, it was time for me to walk back to the train station.
On the way back, as I passed the city wall, there was even an inscription from Shakespeare's love-play, some lines that Romeo uttered when he was exiled from the walls of Verona, as well as a sculpture of Shakespeare.
Verona was quite an interesting city to explore, being filled with many Roman structures. It was only a pity that I chose to spend a lot of time in Venice today, leaving only two hours for Verona.