Yes, yes… whenever winter is about to take its farewell we start feeling very romantic. Warmer and longer days are coming, flowers start to bloom, nature is waking up… and trust me, while it was all still quite covered in frost back home, just a few hours by car away, spring was already wide awake.
Over here icy rain did quite some damage to the forests, but just as soon I’ve crossed the Notranjska region of Slovenia, I saw that everything was green, blooming and sunny. It felt good!
I’ve been to, or better say stopped in while going through, Verona before, visiting the lake Largo di Garda and Gardaland theme park, stopped to see the Arena from the outside… so I knew it’s not too big of a city, especially the old town centre, which is really charming and worth a visit.
You can easily manage on foot, with some 15 minutes to half an hour walks in each direction to really explore the old Verona… the R’n’R city. No, it’s not rock’n’roll, and although it’s restful and relaxing I didn’t talk no army talk either. It’s the city of Romans and romance!
How many of you’ve daydreamt of the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliette, either being on a balcony by the moonlight with a young suitor coming round to visit you, or being the young suitor under the bedroom balcony of your beloved one? Yup, that original balcony under which Romeo had been until the larks started announcing the morning is right here, in Verona!
And Verona also has one of the best preserved ancient Roman Arenas in the world! They even say, it was this arena that served as the model for the grand Coliseum in Rome, with all the gladiator fights and even naval battles. But since you cannot really go and expect gladiator fights in a city as romantic as Verona, I suggest you to check out which concert is being held at the time of your visit – chances are, there will be a grand opera performed live in the arena!
And on top of it all, there are also galleries, museums, the arc de triumph, great restaurants with excellent Italian cuisine… and if even that doesn’t convince you, Verona is close and well connected to other great Italian cities, making it possible to have a full exploration tour of Italy, with Milano and Venice just a short train ride away! And if you’re still not convinced, since you prefer nature to cities, there are the Alps on the palm of your hand, which you can see as the background of the romantic settings, and the beautiful lake of Largo de Garda and the great countryside in the valley of the river Po.
Oh, oh, and like all of this isn’t more than enough and you’ll say, you don’t care about culture, history, romance, opera, architecture, nature, food, countryside… and you’d just like to have some fun, there’s still the theme park Gardaland with probably the hottest ride this side of Alps – the Blue Tornado and a great aquarium of the Sea Life!
So if you’re looking for a perfect romantic city break, you cannot go wrong with Verona!
Borut Jurišić
