Ah Italy! I'm a little in love! ;)
We went firstly to Lake Como. Then via Milan onto Verona, the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Lake Como
We went swimming in Lake Como which was so lovely, and a welcome relief from the heat at the time we were there.
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| A spot of shopping. |
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| Enjoying wine and pizza in front of Como Cathedral |
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| Gelato |
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| A quick visit to Malthus brewery |
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| Ciabatta - it's origins are often traced back to Lake Como |
Verona
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| Feeling like Juliet, looking over Verona from the balcony of our Hostel. |
Verona of course plays on the fact that it is the setting for Romeo and Juliet - makes sense for tourism. And though Romeo and Juliet being fictional obviously never lived there, we couldn't resist going to visit 'Juliet's Balcony', seeing her statue and signing our names on the walls with 'love' graffiti on them.
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See the balcony behind me.
You probably can't see from here, but the fan
I'm holding also depicts Romeo and Juliet on their
legendary balcony. |
We had lunch one day in the courtyard, facing the amphitheatre. And one evening we went there to watch an opera - Nabucco.
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| The Arena |
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| Walking to the opera in the evening sun. |
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The Arena - Stunning amphitheatre.
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Going to see the opera was a very interesting experience. Filling into the huge theatre was very exciting, and as it got darker and it began people began to light candles, which must be a tradition or something which we did not know about. It was very enchanting. I've always wanted to visit a Roman amphitheatre like this. The opera had many acts and I have to admit that sitting with nowhere to rest our backs or stretch our legs, it did seem long, and between each act we got up to stretch out a bit. It was very interesting to watch and listen to (of course!) and we read a little about each act in English from the programme before it started so that we had an idea of what was going on.
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| Nabucco |
After a couple of acts proceedings were cut short however as we found ourselves in the middle of a huge thunderstorm! It was very epic being in an open air coliseum with lighting, thunder and torrential rain on a hot summer night. But soon we had to hide out on the steps inside the building, and it was quite some time until we could venture out to walk back to our hostel. Needless to say, by the time we got there, I was soaked. ...It reminded me of how whilst performing in an outdoor production of A Midsummer Night's Dream back in 2011, I ended up performing in a thunderstorm - again with forked lightening and everything - running about in a long dress in the mud as one of the lovers. In that case the show had to go on however, as the hardier British audience just put up their brollies and carried on watching!
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