Verona – 9.3.2010

Gorgeous City, the city of Romeo and Juliette full of classical style buildings well kept and colorful. Carol took us to the stadium their, third largest in Italia still remaining what set it apart from others we have seen is it was directly of a main piazza, Piazza Bra next to shops. It has massive stone walls and archways everywhere. When we walked into the open arena snow began to fall. As I looked around at all the empty stone seats when a gust of wind came through throwing sand into our eyes. I would not have liked to be performing down here with sand being blown around getting everywhere distracting me especially into my face. Afterward we walked down the main street full of top designer shops till we go to the supposed house of Juliette. We walked through a small dark tunnel full of sheets of paper flapping in the wind covering the walls to a small courtyard. There was a statue of Juliette below her window. What was funny is men were taking pictures with the statue and the common pose was with their hands on her breasts. Then we made our way to Castle Vecchio to see the museum that Carlo Scarpa designed it was intriguing because he designed every space, display, pedestals, wall hangings, furniture and railing, etc. Nothing was too small for his attention. His architecture was way more interesting than what was being displayed to me. Then to my surprise I walked across an outdoor wall to a tower and as I entered the room I immediately recognized it and was overwhelmed with excitement. Last semester I worked on a retail and office building project for studio. One of my inspirational images of my design was a photo focusing on a sculptural staircase, iron in L and U shapes attached to the stone wall that I found on google with no name or location on it. Ta da there it is right in front of me answering those questions. I walked up them and was able to confirm the feelings the space withdrew from those using it, it was almost like being in my building. That made my day and probably the whole trip. Later I walked trough the city to the only existing Roman bridge left here. Shocked to see what good shape it was in, but there was definitely restoration done to make it usable. As we cross we spot some locks locked to each other on the bridge with the rushing water from the river in the background. Maggie explained to me the symbolism as we continued to walk along the river. Lovers lock a lock with their names on it in a public place; bridges, lampposts, benches, etc close to a river and through the keys away into the river. It is a sign of eternal love. As we continued to walk I began to day dream about doing that with someone I love that loves me someday. That night a couple of us went wandering around back close to the river in the more residential area to find a restaurant full of locals. A cute small restaurant is what we came across. Once we sat down at the blue and white checkered table cloth covered table with matching bread basket covers we realized everyone around us were locals. We opened the small menu and I was shocked to find most of the dishes dealt with horsemeat. Yes, I got a dish of horsemeat and polenta for dinner. I figured I should at least give it a try especially since it seems to be a specialty of the area. The way it was prepared reminded me of the wild boar I had in Orveito. It was similar to one of my favorite Mexican dishes my mother makes Carne Guisada , chunks of meat in a brown sauce. The meat was super tender, juicy and flavorful which I did not expect it since horses are so muscular and have little fat. The house wine they served directly from a brown wooden barrel that tasted just like my grandfather’s. To finish the meal and day I had a plateful of fresh ananas (pineapple).