You may notice that there are no pictures included with this blog post. I assure you there is a very legitimate reason for the lack of photo, a heart wrenching and tear producing one, but first comes the tale of how we fell in love with the city famous for it's star crossed lovers.
The train journey from Venice lasted a blessed two hours (our shortest journey of the trip) on one of the wonderful double decker trains through sun bleached and vine yard covered country. We were more than content to sit and watch the world go by, and soon we had arrived in Verona, the stunning backdrop to Shakespeare's famous Romeo and Juliet. Hoping we would have slightly more luck than they did, we set off through the blistering heat to the Hotel Martini.
After checking in and checking out our palatial room, complete with bidet and toiletries, we ventured out to explore the nearby shops and find something for dinner. And I kid you not, we were falling in love with the city within five minutes. Everywhere you looked were pretty cobbled streets and majestic old buildings, two of our most favourite things. And things only looked up when we came across the Roman arena set just past a pretty park, and against the backdrop of a row of restaurants and street lined with shops. We were truly gobsmacked, but managed to pull ourselves together enough to explore the shops (read: Kiko and the Disney store), grab McDonalds from the poshest looking restaurant of its kind, and head back to the hotel for a chilled evening.
The next day dawned even hotter than the first, and after a lie in we dressed ourselves with the attitude of soldiers preparing for battle, only our enemy was the sun. Suncream barrier applied, we headed out and back to the arena to take some photos outside, before embarking on the route through the city we had planned. We found Juliet's balcony, discovered some stunning streets, got the most amazing gelato (I went for dark chocolate, Emily for cheesecake and banana), and captured some of the most stunning buildings under the blazing sun. By this point we were in need of refreshment, and headed off to where google had told Emily there would be a Starbucks. Alas, our old frenemy had disappointed us once again, and there was no Starbucks to be found. After shaking off the disappointment, we walked back to McDonalds for some revitalising cokes, before setting off again.
Now, exploring the arena was on our agenda. After paying our €7.50 entry, we headed inside and made our way to the very top of the tiered seating carved out of stone, where we sat and soaked up the sun and the atmosphere. And man, it was so worth every cent we paid to get in. You could feel the long and rich history of the arena and it's many uses all around you, imagine what it must have been like back in the day. After a while we decided to explore the rest of the arena, taking many, many photographs along the way, both of ourselves and of the arena. Finally, we dragged ourselves away from the majestic building and headed for dinner in a nearby restaurant. I opted for baked lasagna and Emily went for tagiatelle in a meat sauce. And honestly, there is nothing better than eating good food in the sun with the stunning surroundings of Verona all around you.
Content and full of food, we were heading back to the hotel when disaster struck. Emily knocked her phone out of her hand and onto the pavement, and no amount of prayers could save the screen. It was gone. Kaput, you may say. All our photos, all our memories, all Emily's everything buried under the cracked black screen. Despondently, we trudged back to the hotel, glad that the majority of the photos save for the Verona ones were also on my iPad and on facebook. We were also hopeful somewhere in Innsbruck we would be able to get it fixed.
That is, until I had the idea of finding somewhere in Verona that could fix it by 10am the next morning, and we action movie-d it across the city to a phone repair shop, where we left it. Returning in two hours as balls of nervous energy, we were out of luck. Apparently, it was a mother board problem, and so we headed back to get some sleep, planning to try again once we were in Austria.