Madeline In Italy!: May 2013

20/5 - 26/5

This week the horrible weather kept up and my cold came back so I spent Thursday and Friday at home resting up, especially because I had plans for the weekend. A friend of mine, Jayana, is also doing exchange this year in Denmark and as a part of her program they do a “Euro Tour” where they travel to different European cities in a bus. So of course, they stopped over in Italy and we thought it would be fun to meet up. On Saturday she was in Venice, so originally we planned to go all together to Venice to see her on Saturday, but as it kept on raining and I wasn’t feeling too good Chiara decided it would be better to stay home in the warm on Saturday and instead go to see her in Verona on Sunday.

After all of the rain and horrible weather we finally saw a rainbow in the backyard on Thursday afternoon!

My pretty "I've been home sick all day" outfit

Ceci and I

So on Saturday I skyped home, Massimo’s parents came over for lunch and after dinner I sat everyone down to watch Letters To Juliet, a film set in Verona, to get us excited for the next day!

We got up nice and early on Sunday as Jayana’s stop over in Verona was very short; she was only going to be there for about 2 1/2 hours, so we had to time it well! Verona is about an hour and forty-five minute drive from Noviglio, so we arrived around 11, parked the car and started looking around.

Jayana and I hadn't really organised a meeting time or place so I was going to try and call her, but walking towards Juliet's Balcony I saw her on the side of the street! For a second I couldn't be sure it was her, especially considering how weird it was seeing somebody from home in Italy, so I just kind of casually walked past her and said her name and she heard, turned around and almost knocked me over with an excited hug!

The street where we ended up finding eachother

After a bit of excitement and introducing her to Chiara, Alice and Filippo we went straight to Verona's number one attraction; Juliet's house and balcony, exactly where Shakespeare imagine the story to take place.

It is considered good luck to touch Juliet's breasts on the old statue of her outside the house!

Juliet's balcony

Where there is a romantic place, there are lovers leaving their locks behind

Many visitors also leave notes with messages of love or just simply their names on it

So of course we decided to add ours!

We also added our names to this wall at the entry to the garden, amongst thousands and perhaps even millions of other have left a message. It's hard to see but if you look in the centre of this photo in black there is written "Maddie + Jayana"

We then went for a walk up one of Verona's shopping streets headed towards a famous square.

We stopped have a look a this little shop where they did designs and wrote names on different things using a sewing machine and he even did a sample of my name!

The clock tower we then decided to climb

The view from half-way up

The stairs going up the tower

Verona seen from above!

Here you can see the river that cuts through the city

The bell in the top of the tower

By the time we got back down already Jayana didn't have much time left so we went looking for a place to have lunch.

The two of us on the street where we had lunch

The little bar/restaurant where we ate

Chiara

Jayana

As we were in a hurry Chiara chose this place where, unlike most Italian lunches which are made up of several large courses, they brought us many different plates of "finger food" to share between everyone at the table.

Focaccia <3

Then, before we even had time to get a gelato, it was time for Jayana to get back to her bus! It was strange saying goodbye again, as we had done our bigger goodbye in Australia in January; only almost as strange as the fact that after months apart it felt so normal to be together walking around the streets of Verona.

Us outside of Verona's Colosseum-like arena

After she left we decided we were definitely up for a gelato, so we went to a place Chiara knew from the last time she has been in Verona, walking back through the most beautiful streets to get there.

The paint-decorated houses in the square

Gelato time!

The place was without a doubt one of the very best gelaterias I have been to to date, with a guarantee that they use healthy, organic ingredients plus the added bonus that they make the gelatos in the shape of a rose!

My extremely tasty gelato-rose

The rest of the day was then spent walking up and down and in and out of the stunning streets of Verona, stopping by the river and a couple of churches on the way, before we drove home in the late afternoon.