Verona
In between Randy's Friday meeting in Switzerland and Monday meeting in Slovenia, we needed to find someplace to spend the weekend in between the two. Of course, this meant Italy!
Our original hope had been to go to Venice (finally! after all these years! Venezia!), but by the time we were trying to book everything, we could not get hotel rooms. We looked at cheap ones; we looked at expensive ones. I mentioned to Randy that recently Amy's daughter went to Verona, and had an incredible, busy day there. I kept looking for hotels in Venezia, and had just found one on an off-price website, when Randy announced that he would instead go to Verona, and did I know that Verona was home to the third largest Roman arena in Italy?
I did not, yet, and a few weeks later over the weekend of October 25, we would get to see it for ourselves.
More after the jump
It was the very first thing Randy wanted to see after we checked into our hotel the afternoon we arrived. Fortunately it was close to our hotel and impossible to miss.
Good gravy it was big.
Really big. And old.
It was built in 30 AD. An earthquake in 1117 brought down most of the outer wall ring.
The stones from that destruction were re-used in structures in Verona. Other than that, I was amazed how undisturbed this out-of-use building was for centuries. In China, any time a part of the Great Wall was abandoned by the military, the local villagers would often quarry it for building materials. But the Arena was mostly left alone for centuries.
These days, in addition to being a tourist attraction, the Arena di Verona is a premier outdoor opera venue.
Even inside the walls, under the stands, the arena continued to amaze us. The inside arches gave the impression we were deep in a maze, rather than just rings of walls and supports.
After the Arena, Randy announced he had seen all that he came to see, but I reminded him that the next day we still had so much more on my list.
On Sunday, we wanted to get to the noon Mass at the Cathedral, so we spent the morning walking around, collecting some other Roman-era sites on our way. The Porta Leoni was very difficult for me to photograph. What was once a Roman gate had been been used as part of a building's wall in the Renaissance, and an alley has built up around that.
Next to Porta Leoni, the street was partially excavated, revealing the Roman road and what appeared to be a fountain. This was, to Brigid, one of the most exciting parts. Archaeology!
From there we made our way to the river and walked around to the Ponte Pietra, the stone bridge across the Adige River that was originally built in 100 AD. One of the arches was rebuilt in 1298, and most of them were blown up during World War II. The reconstruction in the 1950s was largely with the original materials.
Along our walk were many signs like these, explaining the history of Verona and their relationship with the Adige river. They were in Italian, but between the helpful illustrations and the occasional cognates, we got the gist.
It was after 11, so we started in what hoped was the direction of the Cathedral. I had saved a list on my iPad of many of the Mass times at several of the churches in that area, in case we were next to one church or the other at the right time. Noon at the Cathedral was pretty much our last chance.
We made it faster than we thought we would, with much time to spare before the noon Mass.
We popped into a coffee shop/juice bar across the street from the Cathedral to get us all a little something to get us through to what would be a late lunch.
And then there was Mass.
The liturgy itself went along with such speed, with near overlap, that I was worried about our fasting. We had just said, "Amen," after the collect and were still standing when the first reading began, for instance. But then we go to the homily, and it was such a lengthy homily that we felt right at (China) home. Myles leaned over to me and whispered, "I think this is where our Chinese priests come to learn how to deliver homilies."
After Mass the Cathedral was open to the public. The Cathedral, or rather Duomo di Verona, was built over two Paleo-Christian churches that had been destroyed in the same earthquake that damaged the arena. The current Romanesque church was consecrated in 1187 (!). Much of the interior decoration dates from later than that, but you get that in churches in active use. This choir screen, for instance, is from the late 1500s, as are many of the frescos.
It's always interesting to learn about different devotions in some of the places we visit. For instance, Verona has this 20th century statue of Maria Popolo, representing a particular devotion of Verona that dates back centuries.
After Mass we were free to explore the Duomo complex, a labyrinth of chapels and churches that have been joined together. The baptisty was a red marble octagon, carved of one block in the 1300s, and housed in the Church of San Giovanni in Fonte connected to the Duomo.
Excavations of the entrance hall revealed remnants of the original 4th century churches, like the mosaic floor.
So incredible, seeing all the centuries of purpose and re-purpose.
From the Duomo, we wandered a bit, mostly in the direction of our hotel and the train station. It meant that most of our sightseeing would be walk-by. Verona was so beautiful, though, that I just compulsively took pictures after every turn and up every alley. I ran out the batteries of my phone, my iPad, and Randy's phone. We still ducked quickly into two more churches, Sant'Anastasia (and just the entrance and San Pietro Martire of that complex) and San Giovanni in Foro, but mostly we were on the run.
And one more Roman gate! Porta Bosari.
As much as I enjoy literary tourism, we did not seek out any of the Verona settings that are reported to be in Romeo and Juliet, or The Taming of the Shrew, or Two Gentlemen of Verona. I thought it would be funny if in our wandering we stumbled upon Juliet's balcony, but we didn't. We did make one obligatory nod to Shakespeare, at the Portani della Bra.
There is no world without Verona walls,
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
Hence-banished is banish'd from the world,
And world's exile is death.
Our exit from Verona was not nearly that dramatic. We merely walked to the train station and went on to Gorizia.
Our original hope had been to go to Venice (finally! after all these years! Venezia!), but by the time we were trying to book everything, we could not get hotel rooms. We looked at cheap ones; we looked at expensive ones. I mentioned to Randy that recently Amy's daughter went to Verona, and had an incredible, busy day there. I kept looking for hotels in Venezia, and had just found one on an off-price website, when Randy announced that he would instead go to Verona, and did I know that Verona was home to the third largest Roman arena in Italy?
I did not, yet, and a few weeks later over the weekend of October 25, we would get to see it for ourselves.
More after the jump
It was the very first thing Randy wanted to see after we checked into our hotel the afternoon we arrived. Fortunately it was close to our hotel and impossible to miss.
Good gravy it was big.
Really big. And old.
It was built in 30 AD. An earthquake in 1117 brought down most of the outer wall ring.
The stones from that destruction were re-used in structures in Verona. Other than that, I was amazed how undisturbed this out-of-use building was for centuries. In China, any time a part of the Great Wall was abandoned by the military, the local villagers would often quarry it for building materials. But the Arena was mostly left alone for centuries.
These days, in addition to being a tourist attraction, the Arena di Verona is a premier outdoor opera venue.
Even inside the walls, under the stands, the arena continued to amaze us. The inside arches gave the impression we were deep in a maze, rather than just rings of walls and supports.
After the Arena, Randy announced he had seen all that he came to see, but I reminded him that the next day we still had so much more on my list.
On Sunday, we wanted to get to the noon Mass at the Cathedral, so we spent the morning walking around, collecting some other Roman-era sites on our way. The Porta Leoni was very difficult for me to photograph. What was once a Roman gate had been been used as part of a building's wall in the Renaissance, and an alley has built up around that.
Next to Porta Leoni, the street was partially excavated, revealing the Roman road and what appeared to be a fountain. This was, to Brigid, one of the most exciting parts. Archaeology!
From there we made our way to the river and walked around to the Ponte Pietra, the stone bridge across the Adige River that was originally built in 100 AD. One of the arches was rebuilt in 1298, and most of them were blown up during World War II. The reconstruction in the 1950s was largely with the original materials.
Along our walk were many signs like these, explaining the history of Verona and their relationship with the Adige river. They were in Italian, but between the helpful illustrations and the occasional cognates, we got the gist.
It was after 11, so we started in what hoped was the direction of the Cathedral. I had saved a list on my iPad of many of the Mass times at several of the churches in that area, in case we were next to one church or the other at the right time. Noon at the Cathedral was pretty much our last chance.
We made it faster than we thought we would, with much time to spare before the noon Mass.
We popped into a coffee shop/juice bar across the street from the Cathedral to get us all a little something to get us through to what would be a late lunch.
And then there was Mass.
The liturgy itself went along with such speed, with near overlap, that I was worried about our fasting. We had just said, "Amen," after the collect and were still standing when the first reading began, for instance. But then we go to the homily, and it was such a lengthy homily that we felt right at (China) home. Myles leaned over to me and whispered, "I think this is where our Chinese priests come to learn how to deliver homilies."
After Mass the Cathedral was open to the public. The Cathedral, or rather Duomo di Verona, was built over two Paleo-Christian churches that had been destroyed in the same earthquake that damaged the arena. The current Romanesque church was consecrated in 1187 (!). Much of the interior decoration dates from later than that, but you get that in churches in active use. This choir screen, for instance, is from the late 1500s, as are many of the frescos.
It's always interesting to learn about different devotions in some of the places we visit. For instance, Verona has this 20th century statue of Maria Popolo, representing a particular devotion of Verona that dates back centuries.
After Mass we were free to explore the Duomo complex, a labyrinth of chapels and churches that have been joined together. The baptisty was a red marble octagon, carved of one block in the 1300s, and housed in the Church of San Giovanni in Fonte connected to the Duomo.
Excavations of the entrance hall revealed remnants of the original 4th century churches, like the mosaic floor.
So incredible, seeing all the centuries of purpose and re-purpose.
From the Duomo, we wandered a bit, mostly in the direction of our hotel and the train station. It meant that most of our sightseeing would be walk-by. Verona was so beautiful, though, that I just compulsively took pictures after every turn and up every alley. I ran out the batteries of my phone, my iPad, and Randy's phone. We still ducked quickly into two more churches, Sant'Anastasia (and just the entrance and San Pietro Martire of that complex) and San Giovanni in Foro, but mostly we were on the run.
And one more Roman gate! Porta Bosari.
As much as I enjoy literary tourism, we did not seek out any of the Verona settings that are reported to be in Romeo and Juliet, or The Taming of the Shrew, or Two Gentlemen of Verona. I thought it would be funny if in our wandering we stumbled upon Juliet's balcony, but we didn't. We did make one obligatory nod to Shakespeare, at the Portani della Bra.
There is no world without Verona walls,
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
Hence-banished is banish'd from the world,
And world's exile is death.
Our exit from Verona was not nearly that dramatic. We merely walked to the train station and went on to Gorizia.
Comments