(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Walking through Verona, Ontario reminded me that I recently enjoyed a visit to the “original” Verona in northern Italy. I hadn’t planned to visit Verona but it was the closest airport to Val Gardena (where we were about to ski) and the rest of our ski posse wasn’t flying into Verona until the next day. Would we be able to spend 24 hours in Verona? Easily!

For many English speakers, Verona is familiar because of Shakespeare. There are “The Two Gentleman of Verona”, of course, and there is also “The Taming of the Shrew”. However, it is probably best known as the location of “Romeo and Juliet”.

Yes, there is a courtyard where you can wander in and see Juliet’s house (La Casa di Giulietta) and Juliet’s balcony.  Interestingly, Shakespeare was not the first person to write about Romeo and Juliet: the first version was written by Luigi da Porto in 1530.  There is actually some historical basis for the story, as there were in fact two feuding families (the Capelletti and Montecchi, rather than the Capulets and Montagues) who lived in Verona at the time.

Whether La Casa di Giulietta has any true historical connection to Shakespeare’s play is extremely questionable…but it certainly looks like a proper medieval balcony in a courtyard. And, for true romantics, it is possible get married here: civil ceremonies are performed on Mondays, when the house is closed to tours.

For me, however, the highlight of Verona was its Arena.  It dates back to 30 A.D. and is the third largest of its kind (the Colosseum in Rome is the largest).  It doesn’t look that large from the main piazza but that is partially the result of a sinking structure…or a rising city.   Once we got inside, the true scale was revealed.

Walking around the tunnels was somewhat eerie, as I thought about how much history had played out here in the two thousand years since it was built.  The lower levels of Rome’s Colosseum were not accessible during our visit there in 2014, so I am really glad that I had the chance to explore the structure in Verona.  It also was much less crowded than the Colosseum…and we could climb all over the place as it is still used for special events.

Many operatic performances (featuring legends such as Maria Callas) have taken place here but lately it has become a popular location for concerts by rock’s aristocracy.  Recent concerts have included Pink Floyd, The Who, Paul McCartney, Sting and Peter Gabriel, to name a few.  The Arena could accommodate 30,000 spectators when it was first built but for safety reasons the capacity is considerably less today.

There’s much more to Verona than just the Arena and Shakespeare.  We climbed up a small “mountain” for views over the city and found ourselves dodging more than one Roman relic.   Even walking through the relatively new shopping district at dusk was magical:  the white marble streets (just like in Dubrovnik) lent a special glow to the evening.

While there is plenty to see here, Verona in March was not overrun.  At this time of year, there seemed to be a nice balance between real Veronese life and happy tourists.  Life felt good here:  while I may not return to Venice or Milan anytime soon, I can see myself making an effort to get reacquainted with the “original” Verona.