Verona: Romans, Ramparts, & Risotto

"There is no world without Verona walls,
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
Hence, banished is banish'd from the world,
And the world's exile is death."
(from Romeo and Juliet)

"You, minion, are too saucy!"
(from The Two Gentleman of Verona)

Hello again, Blogonauts!

Let's begin by bestowing on the Bard a hefty acknowledgement. Without Shakespeare, the myths that persist about Verona would likely involve only deities and doges. But thanks to Avon's own Quick Willy Quillsmith, folks the world over now flock to Verona, wanting most to see where fictional Juliet "lived and died," and the balcony where she captured the doomed Romeo's heart.

Shakespeare's play of ill-fated love still inspires the celebration of romance, and continues to cultivate a bonanza for those willing to ignore the fictional nature of the story. (Still, other similar examples exist. Many people continue to look for Platform 9¾ at London's Kings Cross railway station, and so they've installed one.)

OK. Shakespeare dealt with... Time to move on!

My trek across northern Italy continued on Monday, as Italy's impressive iron horse towed me and several passenger-saturated train cars to Verona. My first impression here after leaving Vicenza was that I had been transported into a major metropolitan area. I walked an urban mile to reach my lodging, which was on a blessedly quiet side street.

But even seeing all that bustle of activity on my walk, there was little warning of what was a couple of blocks further on. History was very much alive and cacophonous in the nearby piazza.

Roman Arena

The most famous functioning relic in Verona is its amphitheater, or arena. It was constructed 30 AD...let me repeat...30 AD, which if you do the math, is (plus or minus 3-4 years) when Jesus was was reportedly crucified. So this performance space is older than every one of the books in the New Testament.

But even more impressive is that, after 2 millennia, this ancient structure is still an active performance space. In fact, the day I toured the Arena, tourist access was partially restricted because workers were setting up for a hip-hop concert scheduled for that night. Each summer since 1936, the Arena hosts an opera festival to crowds up to 20,000 in attendance at each performance.

Two sides of the arena comprise Piazza Bra, which is lined on one side by restaurants and on the other a green space. A fountain in the midst of the park was a gift from the city by Munich, which is separated from Verona by the Alps. The fountain contains an abstract mountain range, and each city's crest is depicted on opposite sides.

Exploring Verona is not intuitive, so starting at Piazza Bra, I leaned on my guidebook to take me on an orientation tour. All this convinced me that Verona's Roman roots are still close to its surface today.

In addition to the gates and walls, there are multiple places where the remains of Roman houses lie just below the current structures. Archaeological findings are common, and often there are cut-away places to see ancient mosaic floors.

The tour took me through one old Roman gate (Porto Borsari), and along a mostly pedestrianized shopping street to Piazza delle Erbe. Like similarly named plazas in Padova and Vicenza, this was an open market area...although here, souvenir booths far outnumbered shops for local residents.

 

Porta Borsari (Borsari Gate)

At the head of Piazza Erbe is yet another column topped with Venice's winged lion (the symbol of St. Mark)...testimony to Verona's eventual inclusion in the Venetian state. Buildings along the Piazza date back centuries, and on some you can still see the decorative Renaissance frescoes.

Along the way, the Roman statue at the Piazza's fountain lost her arms and head, so when the newly Christianized town replaced them, she became a statue of the Madonna. Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.

Along the tour, there were various references to the Scaligere family, which ruled Verona for most of the 14th century. (I later toured, Castelvecchio, built by the Scaligeri, which today is an art museum, but until the early 20th century served as part of the city's defenses.)

Castelvecchio

At the Basilica of Sant'Anastasia, the biggest church in Verona, I made my first real stop on Monday. There are Roman artifacts that have been built into the church's structure, including carved crouching dwarfs holding up the holy water font. The decorative paint job was jaw-dropping.

Further along the walking tour took me to the pedestrian Ponte Pietra bridge that crosses the Adige River. The original structure dates back to Roman times. It wasn't clear whether Allied bombs or retreating Germans partially destroyed the bridge, but the Veronese retrieved as many of the stones as they could and reconstructed it following the same structural pattern. Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.

Ponte Pietra bridge

The walking tour ended with the Cathedral, and I returned there on Tuesday. In addition to the existing bits of an ancient church built on the site, the current building is filled with very ornate, often gold encrusted altars and artwork.

Baptismal Font

Cathedral Nave

Cathedral side chapels

Cathedral altar area

Titian's Assumption of the Virgin (c. 1530)

Tuesday's weather began to turn drippy, so I headed across to the Archaeological museum. Not only were there displays of artifacts discovered within the city, but the museum sits across the river on the grounds of the old Roman Theater. (This is different from the Arena. The theater was really designed for performances of plays.) The natural theater allowed seats to be arranged step-wise up the hillside, and from the top vantage point, there is an excellent view back over the city. Unfortunately most of the theater is now a ruin, but they've constructed a smaller performance space in what bits remain. Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.

Today, Wednesday, I wandered about a mile outside of the city center to reach the Romanesque Basilica of St. Zeno, Verona's patron saint. Zeno was a Christian missionary to Verona from Africa, and when he died in 380, he was soon named a saint, and plans put into place to entomb his remains in the newly built basilica. There have been various renovations over the years, but the current building largely dates from the 12th century. In one ironic twist, some of the monks that lived here also scratched graffiti onto some of the frescoes.

OK...this next story's a bit grim: In 2012-2013, they opened up his crypt. There wasn't much left of the old fellow. But still, they had prepared a silver manikin-like body-double to hold his bones. Once the skeletal bits were in their new...body..., they dressed him up on bishop's red attire and placed him back in a glass coffin in the center of the crypt.

 

Whew! I'm exhausted! There was a lot to see in Verona.

Two more items: On the walk to St. Zeno's, the Dolomite mountains were particularly prominent this morning.

And finally, more dinner pics. I had dinner in view of the Roman Arena...an eggplant dish, and risotto all'amarone, a Veronese dish in which rice is cooked in a wine sauce.

Stay tuned! There are still two more destinations on this jaunt: Bergamo tomorrow, and Saturday, Milan.

Blog to you later!