Verona

Thought everyone might like to see Verona, where Emily goes now about once a week to do research with a doctor there.  Sometimes I tag along.  It's quite a charming town!  Home of the fabled "Romeo and Juliet", a cool old castle, and a very posh shopping district.  Check it out:

The first thing you see when you go to Verona's center is this huge old Roman coliseum.  They still hold events there, like opera in the summer.


















There are other Roman ruins in the town, too...it's amazing how they'll just pop up every now and then in the middle of random places.

This is Piazza Delle Erbe, an ancient herb market.  In modern times, it's a good place to buy tchotchkes like ceramic Juliet figurines, but a better place to grab a drink as the sun goes down and watch the tourists.

















Buildings adorned with frescoes and cool sculptures...

There's a river running around the historical district, very pretty.  An interesting tradition we were told about is that young people in love put their initials or a message on a lock, lock it on a bridge, and throw the key into the water.  OK, we're not that young, but we're looking for a lock....

Juliet's house.  A popular place for love notes.

I saw a guy doing this to the statue of Juliet, and thought he was just some kind of perv....then I realized it's a tradition.  Notice how shiny the right one is!



There's also a really cool church in Verona.  It's amazing how much art and incredible architecture is contained within Italian churches.








































Some of the frescoes in the church were within easy reach, and I noticed that some people had scratched their names and other graffiti in the paintings.  But what's interesting is when they did it....

















1383!  The oldest graffiti I've ever seen by a pretty good margin.

The famous bronze doors of the church:

Finally, we have the old castle, or Castelvecchio, of Verona.  I don't know what it is about castles, but I just love them.  So when I heard Verona had one, I was all over it.  They've turned the castle into a giant art gallery, so I paid a few euro and spent the rest of the day getting some culture.

The castle entrance:


















View from inside the courtyard:

And, the art inside...



































Most of it was sublime:

But some was a little, well, simpler:

This dude was so realistic, it freaked me out a little.

One of my favorites was the two saints.  The nice guy -

And, the one you don't wanna mess with.  Saint Badassicus, I think his name was.























Emily was meeting with her professor, so I was a little lonely that day.  But, I managed to amuse myself.

















Doorway to the dungeon-























Overlooking the courtyard, the river's off to the left.  They diverted its flow and used it to fill the moat.

















Up in the ramparts, where the archers used to walk.

And finally, the armory:

So hopefully you get an idea of what Verona's like.  A very cool town, a bit touristy to live in but fun to visit.  I'll leave you with a couple of shots that left me nostalgic for my time at Honda....


Street legal?  Yup.  Personally I can't imagine anything safer.

Fast, stylish, and comfortable, I see quite a few of these over here -

Anyhow, hope everyone back home is doing well, and ciao for now!

Things are finally settling down over here after a busy few weeks! The Verona post will come soon, meanwhile here's what we've been up to recently...

What was supposed to be a week-long trip to Berlin turned into a long weekend because of the volcano, but we still made it for the main event which was our god-daughter Emily’s 8th birthday. As you can tell from the photos Paul included in the last post, it was definitely worth the trip to be able to be there for the party.

Even though it was short, my Ecuadorian sister Maria Augusta and I still fit in some solid time in the kitchen together, just like we always do whether in Ecuador, Germany, or the US.  And little Emily likes to cook with us too. Dinner turned into drinks (in this case beer with an herbal syrup added to it) and chatting until we nearly fell asleep at the kitchen table. Meanwhile, Mark and Paul watched soccer and Mark told Paul about all things German.

It was hard to leave Germany because we miss Maria and family, but coming back to Italy felt like coming home.

That same day we flew back to Milan, we met up with our friend Emma, who has been one of my best friends since grade school. Emma was there the night that Paul and I met in 1995. Needless to say we were excited to meet her in Milan. After an aperativo, we went back to Parma to spend our last 3 days before the move.

Emma, me, and the aperativo - Aperol spritz (my new favorite drink)

The Duomo and gallery in Milan:

Emma's involved in art curation and is very knowledgeable, so she was our guide to all of the art and culture in Parma, including in the churches and in random spots. (Yes folks, that is Arnold on the wall above the underwear store.)

And we got to show her all of our favorite places, like K2 gelateria, and to do some cooking.

Emma also survived the move with us to Bologna, which we did entirely on the train -- not easy even with 3 of us there to wheel the luggage. To recover we treated ourselves to some delicious dishes at local trattorias...including polenta with ragu, and tortelloni with radicchio...yum!

Unfortunately, the new apartment was super dirty and still needs cleaning, even after full days of scrubbing and vacuuming.

But how can we complain when we wake up in the historic center of the city known as the food capital of Italy? Here is the view from our new place:

Emma left for a week in Venice and we stayed to settle in. After a weekend in Venice to say bye to her, I came back to Bologna to get serious again about my project. This last week I took a class at UNISG in Colorno on Food Anthropology and we celebrated Paul's birthday. Monday it is back to the clinic in Verona...