La vita di Beese: A Day in Verona

Buongiorno!

Hello! I hope you all are staying warm in the States. This past weekend I made a spontaneous day trip to Verona, Italy. Verona is an adorable city filled with history the only downside to the trip was the pouring rain. Last night we also had our first of three formal dinners! CIMBA graciously provides three formal dinners throughout the semester for us. We have a long weekend starting on Wednesday and we are planning on visiting Paris! On top of all these things classes are progressively harder, it is quite a challenge.

On Sunday a group of 15 of us hopped on a bus to Verona. The ride was only an hour and a half to the adorable Verona. If you haven't heard of Verona before it is famously known for being the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Our first stop in Verona was the Arena. The Arena is a colossium in the center of the city that they used to use for gladiators, very similar to the Colossium in Rome. It was crazy how huge the arena was and that it was all made from stone. We got to walk around and climb the stairs the views from the top were fantastic too. To me it was a crazy experience to imagine that people fought to the death in this arena for entertainment.

After our stop at the Arena we walked through the main streets and square to Juliet's House. Juliet's House is a beautiful stone Italian home with a stone balcony. However, the entire house is all a tourist trap as Juliet is a fictional character she obviously never lived there. Nevertheless, I found the area to have some sort of novel charm from the Shakespearean tragedy. There was also a gift shop and a gate with many different colored padlocks attached by many precious love-birds to this romantic venue. Along the walls is graffiti of lovers wanting to make their mark on this place. Also outside is a statue of Juliet. It is apparently lucky to touch her right breast. I went inside and up to the balcony for the photo opportunity. Also inside was the bed and costumes from the 1960s version of the Romeo and Juliet movie.

We then decided to grab a quick bite to eat for lunch. I had a pepperoni pizza, unfortunately it was my least favorite pizza in Italy thus far! Verona redeemed itself later on when we stopped at a gelato place with the best cheapest gelato I've had yet. I had Nutella gelato and it was amazing. I sincerely embrace the European obsession with hazelnuts. I love hazelnut everything that I've tried so far. I also love that Nutella is everywhere I go!

After lunch we headed over to the duomo of the town. Although I am beginning to grow tired of churches and Christian themed artwork I was pleasently surprised by this church. Everything was as gorgeous as you would expect in these types of churches. It had high arched ceilings, fantastic paintings, stone everything, etc. I especially loved three things. One was that nothing was roped off. You could walk everywhere and really feel a part of the building. Two, there were approximately six side chapels that had such detailed artwork and architecture. Also the intimacy of small chapels was great in such a large church. Three, there were two giant organs on the walls. The two organs were very ornate with paintings and wood carvings. After viewing everything we headed across the river Adige to explore.

We sort of got lost trying to find the amphitheater, but ended up stumbling upon a fantastic view. We climbed up a number of steep steps and reached the top of a hill overlooking the city. We spend a lot of picture taking time up there. We then ventured on to find this amphitheater. We ended up finding out that it is under construction and we wouldn't be able to see as much as you would usually. We decided to pass and head on to the gardens.

The gardens were breathtaking. The smell of all the shrubbery was refreshing and everything was fantastically green. The gardens were filled with sculptures, mazes, and pathways. It was a nice end to our adventure, because after the gardens we were going to view another sight but we did not have enough time. We stopped for the amazing gelato I mentioned before and headed back to the bus. Another successful trip!

Monday evening we had our first of three formal dinners. Everyone dresses up and they bus us to a fancy hotel that serves us a multiple course meal! We arrived at the hotel to the sight of many appetizers and cocktails. The appetizers, or antipasti as the Italians say, were delicious. I tries lots of things I didn't even know the name of. My favorite antipasti though was the friend red peppers, so good! We spent around an hour mingling and trying new food until we were directed to the dining room.

In the dining room we were served a risotto first. The risotto was one of my favorite parts of the meal! It was deliciously seasoned and a great texture. We then were served pasta with a pear filling. This was all paired with a Chardonnay from the area. After that course we moved to the meat course. We had Faraona as our meat which translated is a helmeted guineafowl. Apparently they raise them in Italy, they are a cross between a chicken and a pheasant (or at least that is how out Italian program director explained it as). It was a delicious meat, extremely tender and tasted similar to chicken. It was paired with some potatoes and vegetables as well as with a Cabernet. We learned that Italians drink white wine first then the red so you can use the same glass and because it pairs better with the flow of the meal! We finished the meal off with dessert. We had a meringue cake that can only be described as a delicious sugar bomb. One piece was almost too much and they asked if we wanted seconds (I declined)! This was paired with a dessert wine, which was a sweet sparkling white wine. After everything was done they served espresso. I declined because by this time it was midnight! I didn't want to be kept up from the caffeine. Overall the dinner was fantastic and I look forward to the next two.

Here are some pictures from Verona and the dinner: