Saturday, June 25, 2011: Verona (morning)/Lake Gardo, Parma (afternoon/evening)

My husband and I toured Verona in the morning, leaving the boys after breakfast since they had no desire to join us. Our first stop was the coliseum in Verona…it is smaller than the one in Rome, but it is much more intact. In fact, it is still used for concerts and other large venues to this day. The very top tier is the only one not still in place due to an earthquake way back when…

Next, we did a walking tour (a la Rick Steves) through the center area of town. We strolled through streets and alleys, stopping at a pastry shop for some cookies, continuing on past the main square and past a couple of churches. We eventually ended up by the river and walked along it for a short time on the way back to the hotel to meet up with our sons.

The afternoon was a bit of a disappointment. The concierge had suggested a drive to Lake Gardo where we could view the lake and mountains. However, once we drove out there we found that it was crowded and there were not a lot of available places to park. We figured we’d just drive around and view the scenery instead, but found there really was no place to pull over to take photos, and the roads were not conducive to seeing the sights…what we did see was spectacular, and I would love to return one day when we have more time and can have someone explain how to best get around the area.

We continued on to Parma from Lake Gardo where we had dinner. Our little adventure of the day involved winging it to get there, finding out there are many zones non-locals are not allowed to cross via car (and they offer steep fines if you do cross those zones, so hopefully we avoided them all…), and finally locating a place to park. By the time we went through all of this we were starving! We did not get the tour of downtown Parma that I had hoped for, but we did have a great meal before heading back to Verona…including gnocchi for me (best I’ve had).  Perhaps the day didn’t go as planned, but it still had a nice ending!

Please share with your friends, thank you!

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