Italy Lovers

The third day of our trip took us to Venice via Verona.

We arrived in Verona about 9:30 and the first place we went was the Basilica of San Zeno.

Basilica di San Zeno - Verona, Italy

This is a beautiful cathedral in the Romanesque style. It is quite old dating from 967 A.D.  Since is was built on an earlier site of the tomb of St. Zeno, you can see it is a very old church. And it had a very palpable feeling of being a sacred location.

From there we went on to see the Arena of Verona, a Roman amphitheatre built in AD 30 and still in use today.

Piazza Bra and Arena in Verona

Unfortunately, we were not there to see a performance but that would make a good reason to return. It would be a lot of fun to see an operatic performance of say, Aida, there.

The last stop on our itinerary in Verona was Juliet's balcony. And it was really lovely too, as you can see from the photo.

Leaving Verona, we continued on to a small town called Valeggio for lunch. I wish I had written down the name of the restaurant because I remember it as being one of the very best meals of the entire trip. I remember it as being out in the country, not in a town. Not that that is much help.

According to the planned itinerary for the day, we were also supposed to stop to tour the garden at the Villa Sigurta' but we ran out of time and did not stop there. So that is another place to visit on another trip because by all reports it is very beautiful.

Then we continued on to Venice, passing through beautiful scenery in the Veneto and could catch brief glimpses of some of the Palladian villas in the area.

We arrived in Mestre where we left our bus and got on the train for the last segment of the journey to Venice. What a treat to arrive in Venice via the train, walk out of the train station and find yourself in a world without cars and only boats for transportation. The buildings rising up out of the water like a fantasy illusion. It was breathtaking. Next was the water bus to the dock near our hotel. Then walking towards our hotel we came to Piazza San Marco. Entering the Piazza stopped me in my tracks it was so beautiful. I had never before had the experience of being stopped in my tracks literally by the beauty of a place.

Photos courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

On the second day of the trip we visited an amazing church high on a mountain built in a place that would seem to be the most unbuildable site immaginable.

The church is Santuario Madonna de la Corona. Click on the link here to see some photos and a brief description of Santuario Madonna de la Corona.

We all loved this sanctuary and it had a very holy feeling.

And let me tell you that we really got a workout that was a lot more interesting than using a stairmaster getting up there and back again. It was quite a hike. But really worth it.

And here's a quick You Tube video to give you a good idea of the location - truly amazing.

Santuario Madonna della Corona