Verona

Breakfast and headed off, towards Verona (Italy) about 10 am. The drive out of the town wasn't quite as hard as the drive in, but I'm pretty sure we did find a one-way street to drive up the wrong way. Lucky it's Sunday and still pretty quiet. As Anne said "no one got hurt".

We took the autostrada on a very wet rainy and cold day - I guess it had to happen sooner or later. The drive through the mountains into Italy was beautiful despite the weather. You don't go over or around the mountains so much as through them. There were impressive tunnels after impressive tunnels. Between the rain and wet weather there were a few stretches of road that were between 50kms and 80kms speed limits. This didn't seem to register with any other car on the road. The autostrada has a maximum speed limit of 130kph in dry clear conditions. I think most of the other drivers took the 130kph as the the minimum speed in any weather/road condition. I was overtaken (despite exceeding the speed limit) by every other car on the road. We saw a couple of motorbikes on the road and caught up with them when we stopped a roadside cafe - they said the rain/wet was just bearable, but the cold (wind chill well and truly below zero) was just terrible. Here I was missing going for a ride🙃.

Italy is a fantastic place (I may be slightly biased), but it does have its quirks and issues (like other places). When we stopped at the roadside cafe (part of a service station) a beggar (older woman) asked for some money for food - unfortunately you just can't afford to give to everyone who asks (and we have given a fair bit while travelling around as homelessness is everywhere - like at home but maybe more obvious). When we parked I noticed that a lot of the individual car parks had signs saying webcams were available - I though wow that's modern without thinking why. It was only when we got inside that I saw signs explaining how to download a smart phone app that let you keep an eye on your car while you are inside - just in case someone was trying to break into you vehicle. The homeless at least ask, these buggers just go straight to the taking.

We missed a turn but finally got to Verona around 2.30pm and booked in. Still cold and drizzling but, without complaining,started some sight seeing. I know it seems as if we visit a lot of churches, but they do tend to be amongst the most magnificent of buildings each with their own history and full of wonderful paintings, sculptures and artifacts. They really are museums and windows to the past. I'm really not very religious so apart from funerals and weddings, really the only time you'll find me in one. The Basilica of San Zeno (over a 1000 years old) didn't let us down. The walk around gave us an idea of what to do/see tomorrow as we're staying for a couple of nights.

About 5 pm (now raining properly) we started to head back to the hotel and dropped into a market on the way to get some food/drink for the night. It was a pretty big supermarket (the amount of fresh food compared to supermarkets back home is amazing - people tend to shop only for a day or two and mostly eat fresh). We walked into a sort of "anti room" before you walked into the store proper. Our umbrellas were wet so I convinced Anne to leave them in the foyer in front of the shop (along with a panini I was going to throw a way). Cut a long story short someone stole the umbrellas but left the bread - pity the store didn't have umbrella webcams😩. It was raining pretty heavy and we had a way to walk so Anne went back in, and €20 later we were on our way. Anne has been keeping a running tab of our spending - she put the €20 under a new category called "Stupid" (with the note in brackets "Maurice" that I think is a bit harsh). We now have bright orange umbrellas that makes us look like walking tour guides (I wondered why we had a bunch of Japanese tourists followed us back to the hotel 😆).

Tomorrow a full day exploring Verona.Read more