Laid back in Verona

Saturday, June 8

We spent a leisurely breakfast chatting with other American guests, served by Gianlucca,  When the Americans left, we continued talking with our host.

Today we walked to the river, which offers protection to the ancient town, as the city lies in a sharp, reverse bend of the river.  The castelvecchio (old castle) abuts the river and has a fortified bridge across the river, as well as a drawbridge and moat -- to protect it from the citizens, no doubt.  The castle stands in the narrow neck of land where the river almost bends back on itself.

The castle contains a museum that displays medieval art and also shows off the interior of the ancient castle.  Yoyi decided to sit comfortably in the courtyard while I visited the museum.  I also climbed up to the ramparts near the top of the castle walls.

From there we walked back to the town center, passing a Roman arch and eventually entering the center through a Roman gateway -- the triumphal arch.  While we were in the past, we visited the 1st Century Roman theater.  They were setting up for a concert for that evening.

While wandering around, we got into conversation with a middle-aged shopkeeper, who was a pharmacist by training.  We learned from him of a shop in Florence that it would have been fun to visit.  The Officina Profuma Farmaceutica di Santa maria Novella has been making medicines, soaps, and fragrances from a wide variety of plants and animals since the height of Florentine culture. We sampled an acacia product that was very nice.  Factory and store are located in the courtyard of the Santa Maria Novella church, right across from the train station and 3 blocks from our hotel in Florence.  And it's free!  Next trip.

We had been on the go and it was nearly 2:00, and now we were in a bind.  We couldn't find any restaurant that was still serving lunch.  Especially in small towns, the eating establishments, as well as other stores adhere to more limited schedules and often even close for a long after-lunch break.  Even the gelato store we planned to visit was closed!  We finally had to settle for snacks for lunch, sitting on the patio overlooking a park.

Yoyi was sniffling and run down, so we went back to the B&B to rest.

We asked Gianlucca for restaurant recommendations for the evening.  Since it was still early we sat on the square across the street and watched the elderly neighbors walk around and wheel around, and the little children playing with each other, supervised by caretakers, mothers, and fathers, while we read and did crosswords.

We ended up at an eating establishment where we sat outside right at the edge of the river.  I looked for a safe local dish, and found one with large smoked sardines (sardone) served with boiled potatoes.  Very tasty.

After our walk back to the neighborhood, we sat outside until it got dark before going back to our room.  Right on the square there was an example of local culinary preferences.  Many (if not most) butchers in the North of Italy offer not only beef, but horse meat and donkey meat, too.

We turned in early, but Yoyi couldn't sleep for her sore throat.