Saturday was warm and sunny. Paul worked til about 1pm, and although I had a little bit of a headache, we had already planned to drive over to Verona and look around. Verona (think Romeo and Juliet) is about a 45 minute drive down the highway, but of course Paul wanted to take the back, mountain roads. So it was a four and a half drive. It was a beautiful drive, full of switchbacks and valley overlooks. Of course, headache + swerving = motion sickness. So I didn’t take as many as photos as I normally do. But you’ll get the idea!

The drive to Verona was pretty amazing, even with an upset stomach. Every mountain drive here though, is. One small town after another, with a tall church tower, brightly painted houses that are crumbling, cows free-ranging so abundantly that there are street signs warning of cows in the roads everywhere. We stopped a few times, trying to get scenic shots, but the best shots never seem to be where the turnouts are. And when you can get parked…trees. In the way. So, most of my travel shots are out of a moving window.

As with last weekend’s trip to Asiago and the war memorial, there are remnants of hand-dug trenches and caves pretty much everywhere you look. Every wall you drive past, still bears the tool marks of hand carving. And the occasional poppy. #LestWeForget

Eventually, we arrived in Verona. As the sun was setting. We had really come here because Paul had heard there was a Coliseum. And there is. The sixth largest one in Italy, or something like that. You can read all about it here.

The Arena, as it is known, still hosts concerts and operas regularly. It was closed, either for the evening, or to the public in general, while we were there. But some of my pictures through the gates show the props and setup for the current opera.

We took a quick stroll around the Arena, which sits inside the old city wall. Like most cities around here, the city center is still the actual city center! Inside the fortified, former castle walls, where the medieval bustle would have been.

By this time, I was getting pretty snippy, having tried to power through day three of a bad headache. It was pushing 8pm and I was hungry and cranky. As we were driving to the Arena, I happened to see a street sign saying “Steak & Shake 2km” and an arrow. Of course that caught my attention, because not only is fast food not a big thing here, but Steak & Shake?!? Of all the places. But I wanted something familiar, and quick, and then to go home to my pillow, so we Googled it And sure enough…

It was just as slow, and mediocre, and full of screaming brats as the American ones. But it had an actual self-serve soda machine. That is absolutely unheard of here. Even the McDonald’s (which serve beer for Pete sake) don’t have self-serve machines! So I had a Coke, a lumpy chocolate shake, and some really old fries. But my steakburger was great!