This past weekend was Rutgers excursion #3 of 4 to the region of Veneto and it was definitely the best one yet. We got on the bus at 7am on Friday for a 4 hour trip to Verona. The weather had been in the high 60's all week but of course the 2 days we go somewhere it drops to 40, so we had a rather chilly guided tour of the city. We were very confused when we saw the first stop...it was a pink Colosseum. Apparently around 1117 Verona suffered a devastating earthquake leaving the city in need of rebuilding. At that time Roman influences were so strong so most of the architecture was of Romanesque styles, hence the Colosseum lookalike. Right next to it was a building with the same front as the Pantheon, we kept finding more and more and doing double-takes left and right. The next stop on the tour was the Casa Di Giulietta (as in Shakespeare's Juliet) which I'm still a little confused about. I know "Juliet" didn't exist, but I think it was the house of the Capulet family who did exist, but Juliet was a made up character in the real feud between the Capulets and the Montegues (thats what i got from the tourguide who spoke broken english). We saw THE balcony, touched the famous golden boob of Juliet for good luck, and signed the wall of love on the way out. The house itself was much smaller than I imagined. I first thought it was cool to be standing in the same place Shakespeare had, then she told us he probably never set foot in Verona but only set the story there after reading lots about it. Bummer.
So on our way down to the river we stopped at a little church, honestly at this point after seeing so many gorgeous churches I don't even remember what it was about. (Siena's duomo is still my favorite) The river (with clean water?! - a rarity in Italy) overlooked beautiful mansions. Next was to the farthest part of town where we saw the last remnants of the wall which used to surround the city. There weren't very many specific sights to see in Verona, but walking through the streets it gave off a very authentic Italian city feel. It would definitely be a live-able city, not too touristy.
After the tour we had some free time for lunch so we picked a cute little place and were told to try their famous Spritzer (orange, white wine and seltzer - delicious!). They failed to inform us we would have time for lunch and I had just eaten a panini so I went with a gelato covered fruit salad, so good! It came with this ridiculously long, absolutely unnecessary lime green straw which served no purpose other than providing mass amounts of entertainment for five 21 year olds. After lunch we all hopped back on the bus for the Valpolicella wine region...
Nick picked a special little winery for us to tour and have a tasting at... a direct descendent of Dante, how appropriate! It was the Sergeo-Alighieri winery (they added that first name when the last daughter of Dante got married to keep the Alighieri name alive). We had a guided tour where they walked us through all the different rooms/houses for each step in the wine making process. We started out in the gardens, then to the bamboo drying racks room, next to the pressing area, then where they store it down in the humid rooms in vats, the second place where aging occurred in cherry vats for less time, and then finally to bottling. Then comes the best part, the wine tasting. We tried 3 different wines, all of different ages with crackers to go inbetween and cleanse our palates of course. It was so cool, the woman was explaining to us the differences between the wines and teaching us how to drink them. So not only was the the land and the view gorgeous, the old authentic italian buildings were quaint, but the wine was absolutely fabulous.
We hopped back on the bus headed for Bardolino where we had dinner and stayed the night/overtook the hotel. Like, literally we were the only guests and occupied every room in the joint (Italian hotels are generally very tiny). We got there before dinner so we walked around what was our first visit to an Italian beach town and went down to the water. It was a little chilly but seeing the boardwalk, (quite different from what you're thinking at the jersey shore) the palm trees and the water was well worth it. After walking around and seeing, yep you guessed it, the wall that used to surround the city during feudal italy, we headed back to the hotel for dinner. It was an alright meal, we probably overwhelmed the poor chef having to cook for us all. Afterwards everyone kind of split up and did there own thing and Nick and i got into a sangria making contest of sorts. It was fun, I like to think i prevailed as the superb fruit-cutter. Later that night everyone sat around (like, almost all 50 of us) playing a little "never have i ever" and just chatting. We all passed out on the early side, this whole touring europe thing is exhausting, in order to get up for venice the next day.
After a 3 hour bus ride/nap we walk out of the bus into the streets of Venice and... now I knew the streets of Venice were water from the books I read, but like, I walked out of the station and...the streets were water. It was the most bizarre sight but probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I saw a taxi FLOAT by followed by an ambulance wailing it's...boat sirens? It was so much to take in, luckily we had a tourguide who gave us a tour of the city for the first half of the day. The first stop was the newest addition to venice, it's 16 million euro bridge made of steel and glass which caused great controversy in the economics department of Venice, made very evident by our local tourguide. It was however, pretty to look at, the steps were glass and at the top we had a great view of the main waterway.
Next we were taken out to lunch at Taverna San Trovaso where we had the greatest lasagna I've ever tasted in my life. No exaggeration. They make it with a different type of cheese and barely any red sauce, it almost looked brown, but I'm totally getting the recipe. Segundo piatti was veal and french fries (again, I swear, if I get french fries one more time while I'm in Italy...) and for dessert - authentic tiramisu. After lunch we had some free time to walk around and do a little shopping. This was probably my favorite city to stroll and look in all the little shops. I know I say this about every city, but it really did have it's own specific feel to it.
We ventured back to Piazza San Marco and walked through La basilica di San Marco, it was over 1000 years old and every thing inside was mosaiced. It was gorgeous and huge...and...a...church. After we walked down to the water and took lots of pictures and looked out at all the other islands. Venice is made up of about 118 small islands surrounded by marshy causeways. Gondolas used to be the main source of transportation between these, but they seem to be moving more towards motored boats, how boring.
After our free time we had to meet back at the train station where we took a train to a nearby town, hopped back on our bus, and had about a 3 hour ride back to Florence. I loved the trip, I would definitely go back to at least Venice and I think winery touring/tasting could definitely be a new hobby of mine! As for the title of this entry (basically meeting Dante and Shakespeare) it's just so incredible to think that I could've been standing in the exact same spot that someone so remarkably intelligent, creative and well-known once was. Most of these famous figures who I've had some type of a involvement with since I've been here were seen so unorthodox because they were the first to try their new respective styles, but look at their legends now. This is definitely one experience I could not have gotten in New Brunswick, New Jersey...
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| 09-03-20 Venetto |
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