15. Verona. The City the Tourists Found. April 25 2023

Greetings from rainy Verona-

Hope all is well. So Biden’s in for 2024. Mmmmmmm…. It’s going to be bruising; if it’s Trump/Biden again we’re in for a roller coaster ride. Trump somehow manages to have his missteps slide right off. As president and candidate, Biden will be scrutinized a great deal more. There are so many unknowns. With only 42% of Democrats supporting the reelection right now, Biden will need to get both Dems and Independents (and maybe some rational Republicans) enthused about his campaign. And Trump Republicans—well nothing to say there, as they continue to support him without question and without any sense of history or the potential of this megalomaniac in office. And so much can happen in the next 18 months.

OK, back to Verona which is a beautiful and historic city that dates back to the 1st century B.C.E, flourished during the 13th and 14th centuries, managed to take preservation seiously in later years, and continues today to be an example of a city that has developed continuously over a two-thousand-year period. But alas, or perhaps because of the beauty, the city is flooded with tourists (and it is not even high season). But they don’t venture far from the main pedestrian streets (which are no more than 20’ wide) within the old city, so as long as we move to adjacent streets and smaller lanes and alleys, we have the place to ourselves—well practically… We are walking the original street patterns that wind and follow the river’s edge which curves and curves throughout the town.

The city has definitely adjusted to tourism, and it drives the economy. Unlike everywhere else in Italy where shops close between noon and 2:30, Verona stores (at least in the center) remain open. While English is still not heard regularly, nearly all people in the hospitality industry can speak English easily. It is odd, though, to walk along beautiful streets lined with buildings that are centuries old and to see the ground floors of those buildings completely overtaken by chain retail behind floor to ceiling glass “sheets”—sort of homages to Zara and Guess and Sephora. In the center of the city is the amazingly large Arena—a Roman amphitheater built in 30 CE and still in use today as a venue for large scale performances.

A simple stroll from our hotel to the main piazza (Erbe) is testament to my comments. There is a large open-air market, probably the site of a market for thousands of years. Only now, there are no fruits and vegetables and no cheese — only souvenir trinkets at little stalls. So, the physical is wonderful, the spaces are reminiscent of history… but consumerism has overtaken the grounds (of the old center city).

We didn’t go inside the Arena because the lines were just too long and we were really in need of an escape route from the crowds who had identifying markers for their tour groups, so we found a truly nice walk to the river through local streets, which was great. Eventually, we stopped for lunch at a small café right on the river and lucked out in getting a table riverside. But our luck would not last long as the dark clouds started moving our way and we moved inside the restaurant…. And then we had to walk through wet streets and rain to get to the hotel to take shelter. Thus, while I still think it’s a great city, our experiences have not been stellar. We are headed out to dinner very close to the hotel—not by choice, but because we don’t really want to get stuck in more rain. We actually had a reservation at what looked like a great restaurant, but decided it was too dicey to walk that far. Hopefully this place will be ok..

Mike has now downgraded our hotel to ½ star! But it is clean and well located, and we’ve had some other amazing hotel experiences so one bad egg isn’t terrible.

Take care –
Fern

PS As we were about to leave for dinner, we realized that Mike had been carrying a cross-body carry bag (in which we were keeping things like raincoats when we walked) and it wasn’t in the room. We checked with the lobby of the hotel and then retraced our steps and realized he must have left it at lunch. But we had no idea of the name of the restaurant and so as we sat at our dinner place, we were both on iPhones trying to recall the name and location, which bridge was it near, what part of the river… Mike figured we’d just walk there tomorrow morning before we head out of Verona. But I knew better, than to wait for the last minute. Anyway, finally found the name and called. And the bag was there; good thing we dealt with it because they were closing tomorrow for a two-week holiday! Mike took off right after finishing dinner and I dealt with the check and headed to the hotel, where we both are sitting now. And the little local restaurant Greppia turned out to be quite good. Had amazing pumpkin ravioli with some sort of apple mustard and sprinkled with pistachio dust. Other dishes good too but this was really special.