Verona

This is the week of the Senior Couples Conference.  Peggy has been the organizer for this event.  We left at 7am on Thursday to get to Verona by 9am to pick up the Verona cards, maps and bus schedules for everyone.  Then we went to the hotel (very difficult to find with the TOMTOM) and assembled the packets and left them at the hotel so folks could pick them up as they checked in.  Then to the Church to set up for the conference.  Then to the train station to pick up the Tonons who rode the train instead of driving. Then back to the Hotel and then back to the Church with 30 minutes before it was to start.

After introductions the Savoldis had a fabulous presentation on what and how they are doing at the archives.  Peggy and I then had some time to review apartment inspections and traffic rules.  President Dibb then took the remainder of the time to talk about what is happening in the mission and plans for the future.

There were 13 couples at the conference.

 We then went to Road house Grill for half price hamburgers for our dinner. 

The dinner was great!

 After dinner 3 of the couples had tickets to L'Arena where Placido Domingo and others were singing selections from Verde.  It was a once in a lifetime experience.  The concert started at 10 pm and the intermission began at 11:20.  

Next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and broke into groups to tour Verona.  Peg and I ended up leading a tour of 8-10 of us.

After walking past L'Areana where we went to the concert the night before, the next stop was Juliet's Balcony and home.

In front of her alleged house is a statue that tradition has it you will have good luck if you touch a certain part of her anatomy.

Here are three real Juliets

We then walked across the Adige River - very scenic

On the way to the Guisti Gardens we saw this key stone.  Very angry carving

The Guisti Gardens were fabulous

This is the largest carved face I have seen in Italy

Here i was up on top of the angry face looking down on some of our group

After the gardens we went to the Roman Theater.  This is another venue for concerts.  A much smaller stage that has many old Roman ruins around it.

We walked back across the Adige River.

Verona is a really old city.

We found this restaurant and had lunch here.  Quite nice.

Next we visited the Duomo

It had an awesome organ.

Off to the side was a baptistery

And under that were old 1st century ruins of a christian church.

This is the front of the Duomo.  

A very neat solid brass door pull

Hear is an eatery.  The sign says "AMBURGERIA".  The letter H is silent in Italian

Hear is an enormous very modern silver door pull

We then got to Piazza Erbe

We went up to the top of the Lamberti Tower.  

Looking down on Piazza Erbe

How do you like this roof top patio?

You can see L'Arena off in the distance.

It was a wonderful trip.