Verona, la citta d'amore!

I think I've found where I want to live. Verona is so beautiful, it's hard to describe. We went there for a day trip one weekend and I think I took photos of almost every side street we passed, most of which looked very similar, but none of which I got sick of seeing.

On the map, everything in Verona looks spread apart, but you quickly realize that it takes mere minutes to walk between the most popular landmarks throughout the city. Some amazing cathedrals dot the map, and we hit pretty much all of them. My favorite was Anastasia-a wonderful painted ceiling and some beautiful artwork to be found in the radiating chapels. Unfortunately for a lot of the churches (except the large Duomos) you have to pay a couple euro to get inside, but this one was worth it.

We played American tourists (I was already wearing the huge camera slung around my neck, so I fit the part well) and went to one of Verona's main attractions: the house of Juliet Capulet. It's a little gimicky for sure, and it takes about 5 minutes total to see the balcony and pose with the statue, but it's a must-see all the same. I actually really liked the love notes graffitied on the walls leading up to the house-a touch of modernity that gave the site a lot of character.

Verona has fantastic shopping, an ancient arena, a beautiful and expansive castle with a great view, and a bustling, colorful main piazza. From one of the arches in this piazza hangs a whale bone (a rib, maybe?) which, as the legend goes, will fall on someone who has never told a lie. Hasn't fallen yet, and definitely didn't fall on any of us. On the other hand, I'm not sure I'd want it to fall on me? "Hey, thanks for being such an honest, upstanding citizen! Now this large whale bone is going to crush you and probably break at least one of your bones!" What a reward!

Verona is definitely a little paradise, and someone told me that it's a place that's somewhat closed off and happy to be contained within itself. I sort of understand why though-it's the type of idyllic Italian city that's easy to become obsessed with.

The day after the Verona trip, we hopped on a train to Ferrara. It was hard to compete with Verona, but my favorite parts were definitely the Boldini exhibit we caught and the Duomo. Boldini is like an Italian version of John Singer Sargeant, but the collection showed off his ability to work with a variety of styles. Some of his paintings looked like they could have been done by another artist. Still, the most impressive were the ones highly advertised by the signs and brochures-his full-length portraits of fashionably-dressed women. There was one of a woman in a silvery dress that I could have stared at for ages. The brush strokes got looser as they got closer to the the edges of the painting, so that her dress and limbs fluttered out in such an ethereal way. Gorgeous. Note to self: look up more of Boldini's work.

The Duomo in Ferrara has a copy in the dome of Michelango's Last Judgement from the Sistine Chapel, and it was equally stunning. The dome was dark when we first came in, so we were afraid that we wouldn't get to see it. But then BAM! they turned on the spotlights and there it was in all its glory. Quite the dramatic appearance.

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