“Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?”  “But I’m down here, snapping photos of you, my darling!”  Yes, that’s me in Juliet’s balcony, although we understand that no Capulets ever lived in the house that is known as Casa Giulietta and to which tourists flock for romantic photos.  We arrived here in Verona last night, to a modern hotel in which everything actually works (!) but which is quite far from any of the sights or any decent restaurants.  But today we made the trek into town, intending to take the bus, but we never found the stop so we just kept walking.  First stop was Juliet’s tomb (see the photos here), which had a museum with some truly fantastic sculptures and frescoes that used to be on the OUTSIDE of the palazzos.  There was a magnificent room reserved for civil wedding ceremonies, one of which we witnessed, but let me ask: who would choose the house of the tomb of the star-crossed lovers for a wedding?  Isn’t that sort of tempting fate?

From there we made our way to L’Arena, a 1^st century A.D. Roman amphitheater that is still in good enough shape that they stage operas here every summer.  Maybe we’ll come back in June for Aida?   On the way out we found a fantastic pharmacy that had – for the first time anywhere in Italy so far – a wide array of herbs, vitamins and minerals, just so we could add more weight to our already too-heavy bags.  We ate lunch in a bustling pizzeria housed in a medieval church, with glass-block floors revealing some of the excavations beneath.  Most of the afternoon was devoted to exploring a museum in Castelvecchio, an enormous 14^th century castle that only worked as an effective defense mechanism for a few decades before the ruling family was chased out.  Many of the frescoes remained in remarkably good shape, and we took a walk around the battlements for a bird’s eye view of the city.  Our strength giving out, we stopped for a glass of wine in a famous piazza before reaching Casa Giulietta – which is completely separate from the Capulet family tombs.  Are you tired yet?  And we were supposed to be taking it EASY now!!!  We would gladly give up some of the sightseeing in order to settle down and write, but thus far we have been unable to find suitable lodgings in Florence or Rome, the two Italian cities in which, we are guessing, we’d be happiest living.  Cross your fingers that something opens up before we drop from sheer exhaustion…