Aunt Karen and Ian in the Air Bnb.
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May 01 2019
I travelled to Italy with Aunt Karen and Ian. It worked out that they also had a trip to Italy planned for the beginning of May so we were able to book the same flights. First, we travelled from Halifax to Montreal. From there, we took an overnight flight to London Heathrow. Once in London, we took an hour-long bus ride to the Gatwick airport to catch our flight to Rome. We stayed in Rome overnight, in an airport hotel, and the morning of May 1st took the train to La Spezia, Italy.
La Spezia is a small coastal town, you could even call it a village, near Cinque Terre. It was my first real taste of Italy. Aunt Karen and Ian rented an Airbnb in which I stayed the night with them. The Airbnb host, Giulia, was very friendly and helpful in guiding us around the town and telling us about things to do.
I only had an afternoon in La Spezia, so Aunt Karen and I spent it walking around and taking in the town. It was the kind of place with brightly coloured buildings and cobblestone streets.
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May 05 2019
Erin and I spent our first weekend away in Verona, Italy. This is a city near Venice, that’s home to the oldest arena in Italy and is where the story of Romeo and Juliet takes place. We arrived the morning of Saturday May 4th after taking the train from Modena, where I met her after taking the train from Formigine. It was supposed to rain that day, but it ended up being a warm and beautiful day. We were very lucky.
Verona is stereotypically Italian/European. It’s exactly what I imagined an Italian City to look like. Cobblestone streets, old buildings, statues, and structures everywhere. There was also a bustling shopping district, with a good mix of high-end stores like Louis Vuitton and Gucci, and mid-range ones like Zara.
On our first day we did not go inside the arena, choosing instead to go on Sunday because on the first Sunday of every month it’s 1 euro to get in rather than 10. So, our first day was spent walking around, sightseeing, and taking lots of pictures. The coolest thing we did that day was climb up the “Torre de Lamberti”. In order to get to the top, we scaled 398 steps, although it felt like a lot more. It was well worth it however, because we got amazing panoramic views of the city.
View from the tower.
The tower from the outside.
There’s a river that runs through Verona, and as a result there are about 5 or 6 bridges in the city that connect the two sides that are cut off from one another by the river. These bridges made for really good photo opportunities, and were generally just beautiful.
As mentioned, Verona is where the story of Romeo and Juliet is set. Part of the city’s tourist attractions are therefore related to this. One of these spots is “Juliet’s balcony”. Here, there is a balcony where people can pay to go onto and look down (we did not) and there is also a statue of Juliet. Apparently it’s legend that if you touch the breast of the statue of Juliet, you will have good luck in your love life. Because of this, when Erin and I got there, there were hoards of tourists taking pictures with and gropping the statue.
A tourist gropping Juliet.
The wall full of love letters.
Juliette’s balcony.
We stayed in a hostel called “The Hostello” that was surprisingly nice and comfortable. We stayed in a room with 4 other girls, in an all-female dorm. Once we were finished walking around for the day, we returned to the hostel and met the other girls staying in our room. They ended up being very friendly and we spent the night playing Monopoly and drinking wine with them in the hostel common area. Laura and Noah were from the Netherlands, and Lara was from Belgium but lived in Scotland. Erin, Lara and I went out to dinner to a local restaurant near the hostel recommended by the hostel worker. It was very good and we all had asparagus ravioli. There was a dog inside the restaurant that was arguably the cutest dog ever.
Hostel common area.
Hostel eating area.
Hostel kitchen.
Our second day we went inside the arena. It was a bit rainy this day so everything was wet and I almost slipped on the stairs, thankfully Erin caught me. Other than that, it was pretty cool.
\240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 Erin in front of the arena.
\240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 \240 Inside the arena.
Inside the arena.
After the arena, Erin and I walked around and stumbled upon this really cool area with a big castle. Neither of us had ever heard of it but it was fairly busy. It turns out that it was a museum called “Castillo de Castelvecchio” so we paid to enter and inside there were hundreds of artifacts, paintings, statues and art dating as early as 1000. We didn’t know any of the painters or artists but it was still very surreal. There were a lot of paintings of Jesus’ crucifixion.
In the evening, Erin and I bought yogurt and cereal from a discount store across the street from our hostel for dinner. We finished our weekend off in Verona by hanging out together at the hostel and playing board games such as battleship, checkers and connect-4. We were both very tired from walking for 2 days straight and decided that this was what we both wanted to do. We also drank an entire bottle of wine, which we paid 2 euros for.
Erin at the hostel while we played board games.
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Share Italy 2019
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