Where Shakespeare dreamt romance

Having learnt our lesson on how to avoid Italian railway scams, we bought the cheap €8 ticket from Bologna to Verona and arrived on a hot autumn day into the city that is fondly called ‘Piccolo Roma’ or ‘Little Rome’ – Verona.

Chapter 1: Backpack tragedy

To support anything that is ‘Australian made’ (yeah livin’ the dream) Dee and I had bought our backpacks from Blackwolf – supposedly a trusted Aussie company for backpacks. Well we got what we paid for, or should I say, I got plenty of pain in return for what I purchased.

The fault lied primarily with my selection of a backpack that was just too big for me, but I insisted on getting a backpack that would fit all my bulky camera gear and was in return willing to take what I thought would be a bit of discomfort on the spine and shoulder. Well well, it just was’t a bit, it was agonising pain and I had decided the time had to come to dump it and trade it in for a new one that I would purchase later in Munich – backpack haven of the world! So I went ahead and purchased a great ‘Made in China’ 60 litre trolley bag for under €20 – a win!

Chapter 2: CS

We met Alice and her ‘Roman’ boyfriend Yeriko, who was theatrical right from the outset in his gladiator getup outside the Arena. The arena itself is a mini version of the Colosseum at Rome and hence I believe the city acquired the name ‘Piccolo Roma’. Alice’s place was right in the heart of the historic center and once home, we were introduced to the rest of the ‘ grande familia’. I say grande because her family did not end at her boyfriend and 2 kids (Andreji and Anastasia), it extended to her ex boyfriend’s mom and 2 of her other mates, all staying under the one roof!

Anas as she is fondly called, blew us away with her powerful rendition of modern day pop songs and the camaraderie between Sergio and her was fascinating to watch. I promised Anas that I would do a photoshoot for her during my stay and boy as every 14 year old would be, she was thrilled to bits. We shot along the streets around the historic center and finished up at the arena where she performed live much to the amazement of onlookers. Soon we had a small gathering cheering her and egging her to sing more.

Anas doing what she does best

Our stay with the Peres family just further tells me that as human beings, we can be happy and content with just the very basic needs – food, shelter and sex. It does not take a high paying job in a big corporation or a $2000 bed to be able to sleep well at night with a smile on your face.

Chapter 3: Sirmione + bread + Nuttella = A very happy birthday boy

The following day, September 18, would mark 28 long years since the entry of 2 very good mates of mine – Chingu and Beiben (sometimes known as Keyur and Ruben) into this world and co-incides with mine. Dee and I had planned to visit Sirmione, a little town an hour west of Verona bordering Lago di Garda, a large lake full of beautiful white swans.

We were told that Sirmione had some great beaches and we went in towels, thongs, boardies packed to have a swim and laze on what we thought would be brown or white silken sand. From what I’ve seen in Europe do far, people classify any body of water surrounded by a bit of land to be a beach, whether the land be just plain concrete or tiny, sharp pebbles. What we faced upon our arrival into Sirmione was quite similar to what we saw on the beaches of Cinque Terre – plenty of black pebbles surrounding a beautiful body of warm water; a far cry from what we are used to back in Australia. Nevertheless, the warm waters of the lake made up for the lack of comfortable tanning terrain and we spent the rest of the day swimming, walking and indulging in general acts of laziness.

Sirmione with its rocky beaches

Now we hadn’t told the Peres that it was my birthday, but later that night, I was in for a pleasant surprise when Dee asked me to come to the kitchen for dinner and I was greeted by the whole family strumming “happy birthday” on their guitars. Dee had somehow without my knowledge, whipped up a cake made of white bread and Nutella and as ever, I was blown away by how good it tasted. Trust this girl to come up with food alternatives! Made it all the more memorable!

Chapter 4: Castel San Pietro served with a mild thunderstorm

We capped our stay in Verona with a short hike up the hill to Castel San Pietro from where we could take in aerial views of the entire city. In true Italian tradition, we packed a bottle of wine, cheese and crackers and marched up the hill to witness what would be the most spectacular sunset we’d seen in Italy thus far.

From orange to blue to purple hues, the sky resembled Da Vinci’s palette. We noticed a few mild strikes of lighting strike in the distance but did not pay much heed to it. In the next ten minutes, gone were the hues of the rainbow, gone was the sun, we were subject to torrential rain that lasted for over an hour and had us scurrying to a little tree to seek cover. Romantic you’d think, but that was killed instantly as I had to take a slash and chose to express my gratitude to the tree. That’s one tree that’ll never die for lack of hydration!

The view from Castel San Pietro just before the skies opened up


More views..

The Facts

Next Stop: Venizia