Tag: Verona

Fri, 25th July, 2014:

We left our overnight spot early yesterday as we knew we had a long, long drive ahead of us up to Verona: Some 630km if Google maps is to be believed. We also had the additional challenge of not knowing exactly where we’d be staying when we got there.

We couldn’t find any campsites in Verona, so our plan was to stay at Lazise – the same Sosta close to Lake Garda that we stayed at 3 weeks previously when heading South – and then travel in to Verona from there. The only feasible way to do this would be by train from Peschiera del Garda; some 15 minutes drive away,  but a lot of ifs and buts needed to be addressed for this to work…

• There must be reasonably regular trains between Peschiera and Verona
• There must be a car park available at the railway station in Peschiera
• The car park must be able to fit our motorhome
• We would need to be in the car park early enough to be able to park, assuming it would fill-up with commuters
• There must be camping places available in Lazise (it IS main holiday season now, and Lake Garda is an EXTREMELY popular destination)

So we altered our route to get to Lazise via Peschiera to check out the situation.

It turned out to be a 10 hour drive up to Peschiera, with a couple of short stops. We found the station; it had a car park that charged just €6 to park all day; there were trains every hour. So far, so good,

Drove to our parking area / Sosta in Lazise – just 5 motorhomes parked there (there are places for about 150, although only 2 toilets & 2 showers!). Everything falling into place. This happens very rarely for me.

We managed to get up, breakfasted and off-site by 08:00, giving us plenty of time to get to Peschiera in the rush-hour traffic. There was none. The station car park was empty. Most excellent.

Train tickets cost just €3.30 each and the ticket machine was working. Bargain. We were on the 09:01 train & in Verona by 09:20.

First stop was the Porto Nuovo (the “new” gate, built some time in the 17th century). Then a walk up to the Roman amphitheatre (or arena). This is the 3rd largest surviving Roman amphitheatre (after Rome and Capua), and is just 3 metres larger on each axis than the one at Pompei.

In the summer, the arena is given over to concerts every evening. Tonight’s performance was to be Carmen. Tickets were available (as long as you have deep enough pockets), but the performance only started at 10pm and was due to finish at 1am. There were no trains back at this time which made the opera a non-starter for us. Pity

Instead, we walked up to the cathedral and spent a good 1 1/2 hours in there; walked over to the oldest bridge in Verona (Roman, but destroyed in WWII and rebuilt using the original materials), saw the ruins of the Roman theatre (under renovation, of course), and Juilet’s balcony; most of the ancient piazzas and generally walked the soles off our shoes. We then paid to  visit the arena: I’m sorry to say it was probably the worst €6 each for for  long time. There’s actually nothing to see; no guide book or any other form of information available; nothing about the history or construction. Disappointing.

Other than the arena, a very interesting day – also not too hot (though certainly hot enough in the sun). We even got a train back – having first stopped at a cafe for a “craft beer” (Hirter – an Austrian brewery. Marginally better than average Italian beer). We caught a suitable return train and our van was still there in the car park, and hadn’t been broken into. Excellent!

Again, no pictures due to lousy internet connection, but watch this space…