Balliamo sul mondo

It was drizzling as we arrived in Verona, but undeterred crowds draped in improvised rain ponchos were lined up outside the 2000-year-old L’Arena, waiting for Italian pop star, Ligabue. Over the next five nights, we learned the rhythms of his set as our apartment was just a few metres around the corner from this ancient open-air venue. As we walked home from dinner each night, we enjoyed seeing fans of all ages wearing concert tour shirts and headbands (!) while singing along. Sarah read that he is touring 30 years of hits in one hour. How cool that a 20,000-seat amphitheater completed in 30 A.D. (50 years BEFORE the Roman Colosseum) is still hosting large-scale concerts and events?

We joined a tour guide on Saturday morning to get the lay of the land. The weather was sunny and warm, after a week of rain, so locals and tourists thronged the squares, shops, and cafés. Our guide was a bit scripted and probably better suited to telling stories to young children, but we persevered and the walk around the major points of interest helped us find new alleys to explore on our own later. Weirdly, our guide was fixated on re-telling Shakespeare’s fictional tale “The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet” as if it really happened. When we pointed out the incongruity of a twentieth century balcony built in the small courtyard of a former inn being linked to a fictional 12th century window overlooking orchards, we were gently shushed and promised that she would soon reveal the true story to us. We stopped protesting and focused on taking pictures of the range of architectural styles in Verona.