Castelvecchio bridge

Castelvecchio courtyard

Tuesday, 5 October. We were up at 7:00 and drove to Rosa's for breakfast. About 10:30, accompanied by Randy, we caught a city bus into Verona, getting off at Castelvecchio. We bought a few things in the museum shop there, then walked across the Castelvecchio bridge (built in 1354, but rebuilt after being blown up by the Germans in 1945) and around the Giardino dei Bambini in Piazza Arsenale where we used to take our boys to play. Randy had been barely five years old when we left Italy, so he didn't remember much.

We crossed back over the bridge and walked a couple of blocks to Piazza Bra (short for Piazza Braida, the Italian version of the German Breit Platz or Wide Place), Verona's central square. Even at this off time, there was a long line to get into the Arena. This well preserved Roman amphitheater was completed about 30 A.D. It was the third largest in the world. It lost most of its outer ring to an earthquake in 1117. Originally the scene of gladiatorial fights, and later jousts and tournaments, since 1813 it has hosted the annual Verona Opera Festival each summer. This is where we had our first exposure to opera, starting in 1960. In those days, we could decide after dinner to go to an opera that night. The Arena held about 20,000 people, and there were always seats available. For the last two decades, however, the Verona opera sells out months in advance, even though the length of the season has been extended.

Piazza Bra' restaurants

Aerial view of L'Arena

L'Arena from Piazza Bra'

Finally inside the Arena, we were surprised to see that it is changing, even from our last visit only a few years before. Some of the marble blocks forming the seats are being replaced by new blocks. In other places, rows of steel seats (with seat backs) had been placed over the original marble blocks. Undoubtedly, this was done to provide more comfortable (and certainly more expensive) seats. There was a lot of construction underway.

Inside the Arena

Randy & the "wing"

The "wing" from Piazza Bra'

Via Mazzini

Next we strolled down Via Mazzini, which had been the luxurious pedestrian street when we lived there. There were just as many shops, and just as many shoppers, but it certainly wasn't as upscale anymore. There were even dozens of sidewalk vendors hawking their wares right in front of the fine shops, something that never would have been allowed before.

We stopped by Juliet's house to show Randy the legendary (literally) balcony. Then we went to Piazza Erbe, once the Roman forum and later a herb market. The old open air market is surrounded by medieval palaces. On the north end of the square stands the ornate Maffei Palace (1668), flanked by the Gardello Tower (1370). The market now caters more to tourists than to local housewives. Even the traditional umbrellas are mostly just umbrella tops set on top of wooden or metal stands.

Juliet's balcony

Us in Piazza Erbe

Piazza Erbe from Lamberti Tower

Arche Scaligere

Piazza dei Signori

 

We walked through the Arco della Costa, named for the dinosaur rib hanging from it, and into the Piazza dei Signori (Square of the Lords) with its graceful medieval buildings, including the 14th Century Della Scala family's palace and the 15th Century Loggia della Consiglio (Council Hall). The elaborate Della Scala family tombs (Arche Scaligere) are in just off the square. 

Passing into the courtyard of the 12th Century Town Hall, we saw the beautiful marble staircase (Scala della Ragione) leading to the Law Courts. Darrell used to come here to see the local Prosecutor when he was Chief of International Law for the Army in Verona. We took the elevator (installed in 1972) up to the top of the Lamberti Tower for some magnificent views of the city. 

Scala della Ragione

Lamberti Tower

View toward the Duomo

Porta Borsari

After visiting a while, we drove to Sonia's to change clothes. Arrangements were still being made for us to take everyone out to dinner that night, but we were incommunicado at Sonia's without a telephone. Sonia finally got us to the rural restaurant (Osteria Mattarana) at 9:15 instead of 8:30 when the others arrived. We really liked the restaurant. It had great atmosphere, including a huge mural of diners in a medieval inn. The food was excellent and the prices were very reasonable. There were eleven of us: Rosa, Marco and Federica, Sonia, Stefano, Daniele and Elena, Emanuele, and of course Randy, Jane and Darrell. Yet the total bill was less than $100.

At the Osteria Mattarana

Mural at the Osteria Mattarana

When we finally left the restaurant close to midnight, Sonia was to drive us back to her place, dropping off Randy and Rosa on the way. She asked if we'd like a midnight tour of Verona, and we enthusiastically said yes. She took us inside Caserma Passalacqua, where Darrell had worked. It was in the process of being converted into part of the university. It was so torn up and full of construction equipment that it was hard to recognize anything after we entered the main gate.

View from S. Pietro Hill

Sonia drove us around much of the city, ending up at what had always been Darrell's favorite spot, San Pietro Hill overlooking the Adige River, the Ponte Pietra (Stone Bridge) and the oldest part of Verona. (Like many ancient settlements, Verona was built within a sharp curve in the river, allowing it to be fortified with only a relatively short wall across the neck of land.) The view of the city from the terrace is unsurpassed, and we stayed there at least half an hour drinking it in. The stone bridge was built by the Romans in the 1stCentury B.C., probably to provide access to the Roman Theater, just below the San Pietro terrace. The retreating Germans blew up the bridge in 1945. The Veronese rebuilt it a dozen years later, retrieving as much of the original material as possible from the river and filling in the rest with red brick to distinguish it from the original.

We drove by our old neighborhood and Castelvecchio before dropping off Randy and Rosa. It was 2:15 a.m. by the time we got back to Sonia's, and 3:00 before we got to bed.

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