Manerba del Garda – Verona

Today's Route

Despite feeling the effects of the Hell Bier/cocktail combo from last night, Jon and I were up and out for a run by 8:30am. Not too far – only 25 minutes – but mostly up hill, so I reckon that counts at least double :) Was nice though – actually went up to the town centre, which we hadn't seen, and admired the pretty hill top houses and little shops and the amazing view of the lake and the mountains in the distance. What a beautiful place to live.

From the run we went straight down to the beach to meet Will & Jo who were enjoying their first pre-breakfast holiday swim, and got straight in there. It's amazing how you can pass so much time just messing about in a lake. Diving off a rock, underwater swimming and handstand competitions, some swimming – just, you know, messing about. Really nice.

We left the site about 11pm after a bit of breakfast and headed to Verona. We didn't really have a clear plan at this point, it was more that we would get there, maybe camp, maybe not – have a walk about, see what you need to see in Verona............ it wasn't the best plan for sure.

We did take the Autostrada again though – much less painful than the evil back roads and relatively cheap. Also it meant that the time we saved we could use later in messing around and around Verona trying to find somewhere to camp, and then (failing that) somewhere to park, and ........... it's a familiar story.

We did manage to find somewhere to park and went for a walk into town. Lunch was first on the agenda although the first café we sat at (in the piazza facing the Arena) was, inexplicably, closed for lunch!!! How can that be??

Anyway, we did manage to eat, and also formulate something of a plan. When in Verona you are supposed to go to the opera – it's famous for that – which is held in the Verona Amphitheatre (the third largest Roman Amphitheatre don't you know). So, we decided that if we could get tickets to the opera we would stay, if we didn't, we would take the van somewhere else. A visit to the tourist information office and we knew where there was an alternative campsite and how we could get from there into town on a bus – bonza. All we needed now was the tickets.

Back to the theatre and queuing up for the last minute/returns/cancellation type tickets. We had no idea what we were up for – how much the tickets were going to be – what the opera would be like, anything.

We bought 4 un-numbered tickets in zone E. The un-numbered tickets are basically the cheap seats at the back – sitting on the stone steps, just like in Roman times!! Great fun, and for only €26 each, if we really hated it we wouldn't feel so bad about spending that sort of money. Seated tickets were about €100 as a comparison.

The plan was coming together – all that was left was an ice-cream, a trip to Juliet (of Romeo and Juliet fame)'s house so that Will could get a photo of himself holding her right tit (no kidding, everyone was doing it!) then back to the van and on for the quest for a campsite.

Appropriately we are staying at the Romeo & Guillet campsite on the Corso Milano about 7km from the city centre. A funny campsite, really big but no-one around and loads and loads of dead leaves on the ground – like autumn come early. They do have a pool though, but that required us to purchase 4 rather fetching swimming hats before we could enjoy it – as you can see, they are rather marvellous!

A quick swim, dressed, packed lunch and wine assembled, camping mat and waterproofs packed (it was thundering and raining when we left) and we caught the bus to town.

Arriving at the Arena at about 8:30, we were queuing to get in when Jon spotted someone he used to work with at Digital Steps standing a couple of metres behind us!! Small world eh?

We got into the Arena and it was amazing. We found a good spot on the stone seats (it was already pretty crowded) and set up camp. It got much more crowded, but it was a really impressive sight – especially with people lighting candles as it got dark.

Once the opera started we were pretty hemmed in and couldn't even manage to dispense our red wine from our wine box without disturbing everyone (it sounded just like one of us was having a wee right there and then) – so all picnic preparing (baguette, cheese, salami, crisps) had to wait until between acts.

The opera itself was Tosca – I won't tell you the plot incase it spoils it for you – but it doesn't have a happy ending, let's just say that.

And what was it like? Well, it was amazing that the singers were there in the amphitheatre and singing without any amplification and we could hear it all, the music was good, and the atmosphere was really worth going for alone (imagine, 2000 years ago gladiators were fighting lions down there, etc.) but, I have to say that I don't think I would go again. A big part of the problem is not understanding the language – so you really don't know what's going on, but also, personally, I just can't stand the noise that female opera singers make – it goes right through me.

We all agreed that it was a great experience though. Well worth doing if you get the chance.

A cocktail in the Piazza afterwards with everyone else and a taxi home and that was our night over and done with. Brilliant.