Today was the day I was the real tourist. I decided to see the standard sights that are available in Verona. I went to the Roman Arena, Museo di Castelvecchio, Complesso della Cathedrale, the Basilica di Santa Anastasia, the Torre dei Lamberti, the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Achille Forti Palazzo della Ragione, and the Casa di Guilietta.

The nice thing about Verona is these are all in easy walking distance and are generally small so you can easily do most of these in a day without rushing to complete all of them.

The Roman Arena is like the Colosseum but in better preservation. It is also somewhat smaller. The standout of the Arena (which only happens in the summer) is the Opera Festival. They have opera in the open air arena. Not sure the architecture of it but is has fantastic acoustics for opera. As an aside, when we lived in Verona, my sister took ballet lessons and her class go to dance in Aida during the opera festival. It would never be allowed today but they danced as Nubian slave girls. So that summer I saw Aida all the way through once but saw it for Act One and Act Two scene one many times as Leslie dance in Act Two Scene One.

The Museo di Castelvecchio is the old fort on the river Adige that guarded one of the bridges into the Medieval city. It now houses a collection of Renaissance paintings from artist from the Verona region. It also has some armor and weapons from the period. One thing that I did not expect and found very interesting was a special exhibit of keys. I am not sure exactly who the owner was of the keys but there were hundreds of keys from Roman times up until the 1800s. There were locks for some of the keys, chests that had secret locks and other objects all related to keys. Keys from these years were very ornate and some of them were huge. I could not imagine having to carry a front door key around that was six inches long and looked to weight at least a pound.

The Cathedral complex dates back to the was started in 1187 and completed (amazingly) in 1927 with its bell chamber. There are various smaller churches as part of the compound. It started out Romanesque and then was enlarged (mainly getting taller) into Gothic architecture. The worship as been modernized as the main alter has been brought down into the Aspe and has modern alter. There is a baptistry with a large baptismal found about 10 feet round.

The Basilica di Santa Anastasia is the largest church in Verona. It was found by Dominicans in 1290 and completed in 1481 in mainly Gothic architecture. It is beautiful and still a thriving Catholic parish. This is wear I am going to go to Christmas Eve mass as it is across the street from my hotel.

The Lamberti Tower is what is sounds a tall tower that stands over Verona. You can either walk or take an elevator to the top and have a great view out over Verona. I took the elevator up but walked down. In the same complex is the Gallery of Modern Art which showcases art from the Verona region from the early 1900s. It goes right up to art that was created for today.

Last but not least is the Casa di Guilietta (Juliet’s house), probably one of the most visited spot in Verona. As most people know, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet takes place in Verona. The story is based on a tale written in Verona in the 1400s. There is not much historical basis for the story but Verona has made the most out of it for the tourists. The house was built in 1400s and is a well preserved example of that type of structure. There is the balcony for you to stand on and pretend your love is wooing you. The instructions says you not to stand on it for more than a few seconds but the house was not busy so there was more time to stand and view the courtyard. There is a statute of Juliet in the courtyard and legend has it if you rub its right breast you will find luck in love. I skipped that part of the visit.

In all it was fun being a tourist and visiting all the sights.