Veni, Vidi, Vici Verona – except the rain won

Our three wonderful days around Lake Garda ended with a torrential downpour through the night. Still the (baby) plants and Lake need the water and it stopped for our transfer to Verona. I did think I was seeing things when we went round a massive roundabout, filled with sheep. Yes, real live sheep, loads of them grazing on the grass on the roundabout

We are only in Verona for one night and so it was only going to be a flying visit. We checked in around 11 and our plan was to walk down to the centre, see the sites have lunch and then meander back to the hotel to have a brief rest before going out for dinner.

Plan A started well and we managed to walk 30 minutes to the amphitheatre before the heavens opened again. As it was continual any plan to sit it out in a café with a drink would have meant us never moving. So plan Z, the solid pouring rain plan, was a flying visit to as much as possible before our jeans and shoes were sodden. That meant that by 14:00 we were back at the hotel to dry out.

Looking at the photos that were snatched during moments of drizzle or the very odd dry minute we seem to have seen a lot but not experienced it the way we had hoped. The amphitheatre is being prepared for a concert and they were lifting in giant staging with cranes etc and we were there at its very wettest! The fake Gladiator for the selfies kept yo-yoing in and out with the rain. I guess the wet ruined his plumage. That and Casa di Giulietta show obvious signs of 21st century commercialism. The piazzas are stunning and the ancient buildings preserved beautifully even if the old fruit and vegetable market in the Piazza delle Erbe now sells fridge magnets and masks.

The rain stopped briefly whilst we went out for supper, but returned for our return back to the hotel. Didn’t spoil the pasta though😊

Tomorrow we try to negotiate Italian rail and are off to Venice . . .