Follow In My Footsteps

The Castelvecchio is on the banks of the river in Verona. The original building dates back to the 12th century, and more was added in the 15th century. The building is set around a beautiful garden courtyard. The castle contains a museum. This silver plate was found buried just outside of Verona and dates from the 7th century. I found this plate particularly beautiful. There are a lot of religious sculptures in the museum. I found this one very realistic and felt like she was watching me as I walked around the room. We walked around the battlements and could see for miles up the river. We had a lovely time in Castelvecchio  While we were there we purchased Verona cards. They cost €25 for 2 days. All museum's are free with a Veronacard, also many other attractions. We used them constantly and they more than paid for themselves.

This beautiful Roman Arena was only 5 minutes walk ftom our hotel. As you can see it looks very similar to the Coloseum in Rome. However in my opinion it is in much better condition than the Coloseum. I think the most impressive thing about this arena is it is still used as a concert venue. While we were in Verona Peter Gabriel did a concert there. Both Tony Hadley and Phil Oakey will be appearing soon. Every year the arena is used as a venue for the opera season. I'm so pleased such a wonderful and historic building is still being used. I spent a little time in the seat the Emperor would have used. He really did have the very best view. Dave enjoyed a seat in the sun in the regular seats. It really is an amazing place and well worth a visit.

This museum was once a private house and is now home to a variety of items. One of the first things I saw was this amazing fireplace. All of those beautiful hand painted tiles. If only I had a house big enough to fit it into. There were some military exhibits. When I see a suit of armour I always think it must have been very cumbersome to walk in never mind fight in. There was some amazing original paintwork dating back to the 15th century. The sad thing is you can see where they have tried to chip it off so I think a lot of it has been lost. Oh the joys of modernization 😞 The original ceiling was also impressive. You can just see remnants of coloured paint. It must have been stunning when it was first done. I loved this museum. It had a huge range of exhibits from a lot of different era's. Not to mention if I had a house big enough I could have completely furnished it with the exhibits in this museum. 🤣🤣

I am not at all a religious person, but I love churches. I think they hold a lot of history and a lot of art and treasure. It seems very unfair that the church is very rich when the people are not. If God created man in his own image why did he create some rich and some poor. It makes no sense to me. We came across this church by accident as we walked along the street. It's a very big and very impressive church. It was indeed very beautiful. Fantastic sculptures Amazing and very old paintings. If you like churches, and let's face it there are a lot of them in Italy, its worth a visit 

We seem to have gone up and down a bit today. First of all we went up the Funicular Railway. We had a little trouble finding it as it was up a little sidestreet so we walked past the end of the street without seeing it. Good old Google helped out and we found it in the end. It's not a huge Railway, but the views from the top are quite spectacular. We went for a little walk while we were at the top and found this old gateway. Throught the gateway we found what we think were old city walls. I think they were medieval. You could see the walls running all the way along the top of the hills. In the afternoon we went up the Torre Dei Lamberti E Gam. The tower was originally built in the 12th century, and then added to in the 15th century to get to the hight it is now. I am pleased to say there was an elevator that went most of the way up or I would never have made it to the top. Only 40 steps left to climb and I managed them. Once again stunning views over Verona.

    We arrived at Varona Airport at 10.05 local time. We are staying the Hotel San Luca. I was a bit worried about the hotel as it is on a little back Alley. I had no need to worry, its a lovely hotel, the rooms are nice and the bathroom has a waterfall shower which is always good as far as I am concerned. We unpacked and headed out for our first bit of exploration. Five minutes ftom the hotel and you come to the Arena of Varona. I had my first Aperol with lunch. It will not be my last. It was delicious. We found the Castelvecchio which was closed by the time we found it but we plan to come back. We found some Roman Ruins that were uncovered when they started to build an underground car park. We found a Roman Arch on the Riverside. We had coffee and cake. I love a good coffee and this was a good coffee. The cookies was also delicious 😋  Our first day went very well. Tomorrow we start some serious sight seeing.

     I have thought about writing a travel blog form a long time. I was never sure if I did enough to interest people. Then I thought I will never know unless I give it a try. So here I am about to start.      I have a deep love for Scotland and never need an excuse to to go. I can assure you that Scotland will feature heavily in this blog. I love to get out in the beautiful countryside with my husband Dave and our dog Star. We have wonderful adventures together. My favorite area of Scotland is Skye. We used to go every summer with our touring caravan, but like for everyone else in the world things changed with the Covid19 pandemic. The world seems to be getting back to normal now and we are hoping to get to Skye again in the summer.     Another favorite of mine is Italy. We first went to Italy together in 2016. We got some money from an insurance policy and decided to spend it on a holiday. We chose Rome and could not have chosen better. For me i...