Music and Markets - - Following the Music

We meet the most delightful people in the United Air Lines Lounge! Last winter we met some people we ended up traveling with in Germany and Italy and today we are surprised to see some dear friends who are going with their parents to Paris for their daughter’s third birthday. Anne and I are both smitten by the little curly-haired girl we haven’t seen since she was just a baby. She breaks confidently away from her parents and into my arms like I’m a beloved uncle. None of the clinging shyness, clenching mama’s skirt, rather she assumed I would be interested in her without the Shirley Temple overly preciousness. We have a short chat with her parents before they have to board the plane to Paris for a multi-generational retreat in the Loire. Normally, here I’d sigh but because we’re headed for the breadbasket of Italy, there’s no pining for Paris.
On the plane we wait around so long on the runway that we get to Munich too late for our flight to Milan; so after a sumptuous buffet breakfast in Lufthansa’s Lounge, they put us on a plane to Verona, our final destination today, saving us the train trip from Milan to Verona – first time we’ve ever been so happy for a flight delay!
As always, we set out on foot in the sunshine so we don’t sleep the first day away. After taking photos from our hotel balcony of the snow-capped mountains on the horizon, we parade under the ghibelline crenellated medieval city gate for a look at the massive pink marble arena. Here there is a sleek black Ferrari parked in front of the Tourist Information Center, showing off its engine through a see-through trunk. Having only been here in the winter, we are remarking all along our walk down the River Adige that we didn’t know how beautiful this city was. We stop to look back at the old castle and the massively fortified bridge going into it.
Our destination is the Basilica of San Zeno just a little outside the city center. Saint Zeno, born in Africa in the 8th century is the patron saint of Verona and there’s an ancient smiling statue of him blessing the Veronese to the right of the altar. The front of the church is two stories. Stairs go up to the choir and altar where there’s a triptych, the Majesty of the Virgin by Mantegna (it had been “acquired” by Napoleon but since then mostly returned – some pieces of it are still in the Louvre; the triptych is now currently being renovated and there’s a full sized digital photograph in its place).

Alongside the altar are 13th century Veronese frescoes depicting St. George and the Princess.

These frescoes are at eye level and have graffiti scratched in them from the 1300s!

Below the altar it appears we’ve gone under a forest where the columns are the roots of ancient trees. It’s cold as a tomb down there and we leave in a hurry. The front doors of the basilica are adorned with 12th century bronze panels that appear primitive compared with those on the Baptistry doors in Florence made 400 years later.

The symmetry of the cloister beside the basilica is calming with its double columned arches. This is the perfect way to spend the first hours on the ground and there’s nothing like a cloister to clear away the stuff that clutters our minds.

We cross the Adige, walk through a neighborhood of apartments, beside the arsenal, and back across the Adige on the fortified bridge.

We climb up to the archers’ perch and pretend to defend the city from invaders. Before we know it, we’re in the thick of the commercial area before arriving at the city’s main square, the Piazza delle Erbe, the site of the earlier Roman Forum.

After a rejuvenating nap at the hotel, we meet Professor Andrea Zafaroni for a guided tour of Verona. We are joined by a family of five from Milan and the eight of us set out on a very educational and fun city tour.

We start at the amphitheatre which is older than Rome’s Coliseum. He explains that most of what we know about what went on in Roman amphitheatres we learned in the 18th century from discoveries at Pompeii.

We also learn the following factoids from the professor:

There are 260 thousand citizens of modern Verona.
The city’s most famous exports are Valpolicella red wine, pink marble, and holiday breads like panetone, panestella, and pan d’oro.
Verona is Italy’s 4th most often visited city
Maria Callas performed at the Verona Opera Festival in 1947 before she was well known and married a Veronese before she fell in love with Onassis.
Shakespeare’s, play, Romeo and Juliette was the third version of the story. The fabled feuds between Verona’s political parties (papal guelfs and imperial ghibellines) were common and Shakespeare wrote his play, set in Verona, after reading an English translation of one of them.
Until the 1970’s Juliette’s balcony was more often visited than the Vatican museums.
Dante was exiled to Verona from his hometown, Florence, because of his political views and became best friends with “The Big Dog” Cangrande of the Scaligeri family. They named themselves that after Marco Polo who spent 25 years in China came back with tales of Genghis Kahn. Kahn sounds like Cane (dog) in Italian so the Scaligeri took the name and symbol of dogs to denote their badness and power.

Andrea finishes the tour at his favorite place - the unusual raised tombs of the Scala family.

He brought us an assortment of sliced ham and sausages before the house specialty, risotto with Amarone, the best wine of the region. We split a dish of fork-tender beef cheek and polenta before walking home to crash for good at the hotel.