Wednesday, 7 November 2012

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene



After 2 months of hard grafting (ish) it was about time I gave myself a well deserved rest and that is what I did last weekend, when I took the trip by plane to see Hannah in Verona. All Saints Day (not named after the famous nineties girl group or the clothes shop) is celebrated in Germany with a public holiday, giving me the perfect chance to extend my trip to last from Thursday to Monday. 




Thursday + Friday -  Sun, Sights and Swimwear
Arriving at around 2pm, I got off the bus from the airport to see a beaming Hannah waiting for me wrapped up in her winter warmth (even thought Verona feels tropical in comparison to Munich). Thursday was spent relaxing and talking as we’d both had rather heavy nights the night before! Dinner out at a typically Italian restaurant overlooking the Amphitheatre and then we got an early night. Friday was forecasted sunshine so we headed out into the city. After taking in the rather underwhelming sight of Juliet’s famous balcony, we decided to look for higher ground in order to get a great view of the city. We headed up to where the old city walls can still be seen and got a fantastic panoramic of the city and surrounding areas, whilst taking in the last of the Indian summer.
A quick change and we were out to an all-inclusive pool party just outside of town. I assumed this would be a scummy affair, with middle aged men stood waist deep in lukewarm water, leering at any girl who went anywhere near. As such I didn’t bother to take swimwear with me – who wants to be carrying around wet clothes in a club? Instead it turned out that this was an ACTUAL pool with a bar and DJ booth. Swimwear was listed as optional so was the split about 50-50? No. We were virtually the only people there not in swimwear. The night never really picked up from here and we ended up waiting around outside for a bus for about 2 hours.
Saturday was a slow day with one particular highlight – ice cream. A smorgasbord of flavours was available on every street corner but Hannah took me to a particular favourite where the ice cream had bits in. Not just small bits, but full hazelnuts and wafers! Truly great.

Sunday - Oh Sun, Sun! Wherefore art thou Sun?

Sunday saw the rain arrive but we didn’t let it dampen our spirits. Giardino Giusti is a beautiful, classically Italian garden in the heart of Verona. Hidden behind huge walls, the garden is designed in tiers so that a more of the city can be seen the further up you travel – very clever. I wanted to do one last bit of sightseeing before I left so we made our way to the Amphitheatre. What we hadn’t realised was that it only costs 1€ every first Sunday of the month – which it was! I had a highly enjoyable time pretending I was a fighter, a punter and also doing the classic thumbs down pose as Caesar. 

A thoroughly enjoyable weekend all-round until my 4am Monday morning journey to the airport by a very overpriced taxi followed by a full day at work. It’s going to take rather a while to fit back into the Munich lifestyle again.


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