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| The old city wall in Verona |
Day three with the in-laws and we were off to Verona and
Sirmione. In the morning Josh and I found ourselves downstairs for breakfast by
ourselves. This is VERY strange because Mike and Laura are always the first
ones to wake up. As it turns out, we had to go wake them up after we realized
they were still sleeping. Of course, they were embarrassed! But they were on
vacation and deserved time to relax and sleep!
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| Juliet's balcony |
After a descent breakfast (with American coffee for Mike),
we were on our way to Verona. Again, it was a chilly day, but the sun was out
so it felt warmer than Venice. My sinus infection was still rearing its ugly
head so I wasn't feeling the best that day- but I tried to be a good sport and
still enjoyed everything! We took Mike and Laura to see Juliet's house and her
balcony. They took the tour of the house so they were able to go onto the
balcony. Josh was in the courtyard below the balcony waiting with the camera
and captured a cute romantic moment for the two of them :) In the courtyard at
Juliet's house is a bronze statue of Juliet. Remember when I said that Italians
rub bronze statues to ward off bad luck? Well, this one is no different- although,
I think the Italians decided to have some fun with this one. It's tradition to
touch Juliet's boob (not just the arm, or the leg). As you can see from the
pictures, she's been touched a LOT over the years! Poor girl...
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| "Locks of Love" |
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| People used to write on the ancient walls of the house-"I love Romeo!" This is now forbidden and they are cleaning off the graffiti. |
From Juliet's house, we walked into one of the main squares
for some food. There was a little market set up with lots of food vendors, so
we grabbed some fresh fruit and panini. By this point in the trip Laura had
realized that Italy has some really cute boots, and she was determined to go
home to MN with a pair of Italian boots. We were now on a mission! Somehow boot
sizes were brought up and we were curious how big Italy would be if it were a
boot... we determined that it's pretty big, but not huge, so we settled on a
size 15 boot.
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| The market is shown behind us |
Mike and Laura also toured the arena where we saw the opera
in August (a warm up for their upcoming trip to the Collosseum), then we took a
break for some refreshments. After quenching our thirsts (and taking in some
much needed caffeine for me), we were on the road again to the next stop on the
way back to Milan- Sirmione. Sirmione is a cute little city at the tip of a peninsula
on Lake Garda. This city is technically on an island and has an old castle with
a draw bridge (literally the gate to the city). We toured the castle and were
able to get some amazing views from the tower. Again, the air was really clear
that day so we could see the Alps perfectly!
While we were in Sirmione we noticed a lot of people eating
gelato. So... we had to do the same! I found a gelato flavor of Apple and Cinnamon-
OMG!! It was soooo good! It tasted like apple pie. The whole day we were seeing
“I Puffi” (the Smurfs!) everywhere- it was even a gelato flavor! The new Smurf
movie is out in Italy, so everything is about the Smurfs. We realized that Papa
Smurf in Italian "Grande Puffo"! We had a good laugh at that! We left
Sirmione after that because we had dinner reservations at one of our favorite
restaurants in Milan that night- Trattoria Arlati.
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| Looking at the peninsula from the tower in Sirmione |
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| held captive in the castle |
This restaurant was introduced to us by one of Josh's
co-workers and it is amazing! Our table was in the basement (that I didn't know
existed). The room had a small bar, a stage and a few TVs. This room was also
their wine cellar so Josh loved it! The restaurant is great for typical
Milanese cuisine, so of course it was a lot of meat and rice, but it’s
fantastic! Mike tried the Osso Buco, I had the "hot pot" which is
slow cooked meat with a side of risotto, and I believe Josh and Laura had
pasta. They also tried Limoncello after dinner for the first time and loved it.
This is my digestivo of choice :) They were trying all sorts of new things so
far on this trip, and loving it!
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| the end of the summer flowers |
Another great day in paradise!
The next stop on our journey:
Lake Como and Belaggio
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