Vicenza and Verona

After Venice, Megan and I went to Vicenza and Verona, while the rest of the girls went to Florence.  Sunday we were planning on going to see some Carlo Scapra buildings Megan wanted to see, so we only were in Vicenza for about an hour that morning; just long enough to realise that there are a ton of Palladian buildings in the town, which was really exciting for me!

Then we spent the rest of the day riding on trains, trying to find the towns where the Scarpa buildings were, but never quite finding them. . . so, it was sort of a lost day, but we did end up in the mountains, so that was nice!

After we got back to Vicenza late that night, there was another thunder storm which was lovely!

The next day, I decided to let Megan do her own Scarpa stuff, while I checked out Vicenza for a few hours before heading over to Verona.

My plan was to see the Palladian buildings in Vicenza, but since no one in town seemed to carry a tourist map, and the public ones posted weren't that helpful, it turned out to be a frustrating few hours, and I was beginning to think the trip was a serious lapse in judgement.  In fact, I was having such a bad day, I tried to change my ticket back to Rome so I could leave earlier, but it cost way too much, so I decided that the first bookstore I found with English books, I would buy one - any one - to make the day go by faster.  Then I bought a map of Verona (already an improvement from Vicenza!) and once I got into the main part of town, it was awesome!  Not as good as Venice, but still worth a day trip!

The cool thing about Verona is . . . well, there are several cool things.  The first I discovered was, that is where Romeo and Juliet takes place, so natrually I had to see their "houses" (yes, Clint I know it is a ficitional story, but it has a setting that is very much real).

Juliet's house:

Romeo's house:

Another cool thing is that they still use their ancinent/historical theaters and stadiums for shows!  In one of them, there was going to be a ballet of Romeo and Juliet, but in September. . . too bad!

The Castle Veccio is pretty cool, too!

While I was in Verona, I found a bookstore (since my train didn't leave til 11:30 pm, I figured I would still need a book to keep me company) and bought Romeo and Juliet (it seemed appropriate, since I hadn't read it yet).  AND they had a Disney store.  I went in twice and came out both times without purchasing anything.  That is a real feat of will for me : )

Well, anyway, 691 pictures later, and that was my four-day weekend!

This plan for this week is work, work, work, and then on Friday we're going on another tour with Alan Sceene (the road guy).  So, I don't expect I'll be doing anything terribly exciting until Saturday. . . Until then, Ciao!