The next part of the tour is quite interesting for us as Gigi booked all of the reservations for us. This is a return of the favor when I helped her set up a driving trip from San Francisco to Vancouver BC last summer. But because she was traveling in the BVI for a couple of months prior to the trip, she was not able to send us much of the details. We had a general idea, but were hoping that the details all meshed. So we had to just trust, which is tough on planners like Nancy and me.
We new that we were doing Bolzano, Verona, Venice, and then back to Vienna. But we picked up the details when we rendezvoused with Gigi and Peter at the Vienna airport. I loaded the hotel information into my iPhone calendar and we were ready to go. Turns out the arrangements were great and it all worked like clockwork with fantastic accommodations. Thank You Gigi!
On Tuesday morning we rented a car at Innsbruck airport and traveled to Bolzano Italy. It was a little tricky getting started as all of the customs for rental cars, signage, and etc. were different that what we are used to in the US. In fact, I ended up intermediately parking the wrong way in the lot to load our luggage causing some not-so-amused looks from those trying to get around us.
Then our new Garmin GPS with Europe database did not recognize the address or the hotel to which we were going. The GPS had a newer user interface than the other Garmins we had been using and the improvements escaped us. I read online that new users ‘eventually’ adapt. Actually Nancy did do a good job of figuring it out while enroute to Bolzano. In the meantime, we followed the GPS directions to the autobahn and thought to ourselves that we might not have found the way so smoothly without the GPS as the signage was tough to follow.
Apparently the standard approach along our routes is for the authorities to monitor speeding with cameras. Our new GPS does a nice of telling you the top speed allowed on the segment of road you are traveling and what your estimated GPS speed is. When a camera point comes up the GPS sounds an alert so you can confirm you are within the proper speed range. Actually, I am traveling well below the speed limit due to my lack of familiarity with the rules of the road.
We maneuver to Bolzano and the GPS gets us to drive by the square where we spot the hotel. We spend about 10 minutes maneuvering to the garage and it seems we need to drive across some sidewalks. We see others do it so we proceed. We check into the Hotel Grief which is friendly and well situated on the main square, Piazza Walther.
We were hungry so we set out and picked a restaurant, Aida Cafe, in the square not far from the hotel. It won because it had a big strudel sign, I am a sucker for apple strudel. We then set about a trek through and around town. We enjoyed the shops and the environment of old buildings nestled in the southern Alps with castles and churches on the hilltops. We also liked that some modern buildings were included within the city which appeared to be mostly art museums and gov’t buildings. Some modern office buildings were outside the town center area.
By far the best attraction of Bolzano, though, was Otzi the Iceman. He is a native from 5000 years ago that was found about 20 years ago near the current Austrian/Italy border freeze dried within a glacier. After some political negotiations his remains and gear are stored in a museum in Bolzano and the research about him is centered at the University of Innsbruck.
What’s amazing is that the researchers have gone into super forensic anthropologist mode (something like Bones on TV) and have found out some amazing things about him. They know what he ate hours before he died, the day before and what his general diet was. They deduced where he was born, where he migrated to, and where he was living. They know that he had several major illnesses during his life and he had one about 3 months before he died that took him a couple of weeks for recovery. etc. etc.
In addition his tools were quite sophisticated and historians are now updating their models for early inhabitants. He had bow and arrow with carefully optimized features. He carried with him food, snacks, medicine, and fire making tools. His clothing were made of several different animal hides and they were sophisticatedly configured to optimize life in the mountains including hiking boots.
He is quite a phenomenon in culture as well. Many people have tried to help figure out what happened to him by evidence and the favorite theories change every year. We enjoyed reading the letters that people have sent including one from Nigeria that stated for $5,000 he would give up the ‘real name’ of the iceman. We noted that popular actor Brad Pitt seems to have an Otzi the Iceman tattoo.
We were quite fascinated. Here are some links for the interested reader: link link link link
That night we wandered around Bolzano and chose the Roemerkeller Restaurant for dinner just off of the square and we thought we had made a good choice. Although if I go back again I will check out the Laurin which is associated with the Hotel Greif and its neighbor the Hotel Laurin.
Verano (wiki-link, panoramic view)
We depart the next morning from Bolzano heading toward Verano. This time the GPS initialization process works fairly well and we follow a complicated set of winding roads to the highway without missing a beat. It’s a little more than an hour trip.
During the drive to Verano Nancy read here Rick Steve’s travel guide description so we could get oriented. We did this for our other upcoming stops as well to get a feeling for the town, landmarks, history, and etc. Plus it included little tips for getting the most out of the visit.
We noticed in our guidebooks that Verano has a no-drive zone downtown with police cameras being used to ticket offenders without the proper permissions. Since our hotel is in the downtown historic district we call ahead to find out the procedure. They say drive to the hotel and they will valet park the car and clear it with the police retroactively.
Driving to the hotel was an adventure. The GPS got us close but its reception is blocked in the alleyway valleys so we must resort to following the signs. It was quite confusing for newcomers to Verano. Now that we know Verano quite well it’s not so bad in retrospect. 🙂
We are staying at the Hotel Due Torri which is right next to one of the nicest churches in a beautiful setting a short walk from everything. We love the hotel and the service.
We set out exploring for a lunch spot and settle into a cafe, recommended by Claudio behind the Hotel’s front desk, on the Piazza Erbe (live webcam). This ends up being our prime space for dinner, banking, shopping, and etc. Most of the shopping alleys begin or end on this Piazza and it’s fun to watch the people. Nearby is the Piazza Bra which adjoins the arena.
The Verona Arena was built by the Romans and is basically another Coliseum although our tour guide assured us several times that no Christians were ever killed in this one. It’s the third largest still standing and is still in active use. Apparently the acoustics are amazing and operas are hosted without audio amplification. We are told that rock stars must still use their amplifiers because, of course, the singing skills need to be hidden rather than exposed by the arena. My brother tells me that he remembers going to a concert here when he was based in Italy. Unfortunately, the opera season starts next month and we chose to skip the pop concert on the second night. The is also a Roman Theater that is still in use.
Verona is actually quite remarkable. I am amazed that structures are standing from as far back as 100 BC and that the city has layers and buildings from BC to Roman to Barbarian (Medieval Phase I) to Scaligeri family control (Medieval Phase II) to Venetian to French to Austrian and finally to Italy. Each installing their own features. Buildings are still being used and they frequently find examples of previous generations when they do repairs, renovations, and etc. I am particularly respectful of the Romans for the longevity of their structures in spite of floods, earthquakes, fires, and wars.
The artwork within the churches is beyond easy description and photos can’t hope to relate. T’he church next door adjoining the courtyard with our hotel is the Sant’Anastasia. The duomo in town is quite large and with an equally impressive art display. Our tour guide told us that a friend of hers was invited to the adjoining Bishop’s quarters and was amazed at its opulence inside. The fact that the catholic church controls the city, much of the property, one of the banks, and seems to be so rich while begging for more donations/contributions/tithing seems to be a growing rift to hear our guide describe it.
Some fascinating history is the Scaligeri family which is much like the better known Medici family. The Scaligeri family palaces and tombs are spotted throughout the city. They recently discovered that the initial leader who called himself Cangrande was actually poisoned shortly after completing a key battle/siege. Now his nephew is suspected. Seems like many of the Scaligeri were assassinated by family members seeking control and this may have been the first. Incidentally Cangrade means big dog and apparently comes from overhearing stories from Marco Polo about Ghengis Kahn.
One frustration we have been experiencing is with my camera. I want to make a slideshow from our trip but the camera has been acting up. I finally remembered that the built-in charger in the camera is not good you are supposed to use an external charger for the rechargeable batteries. I start out looking for new batteries and everyplace we go with no luck. Using the built-in charger we are good for about 20 pictures until the camera starts acting up. I am hoping that a new battery will solve the problem. No Bust Buys, WalMarts, or the like here so no one carries it. It wasn’t until our first night in Verona that I found a place that had an external charger. I got the battery fully charged and it hasn’t been a problem since. In fact, I bet I could complete the trip with one charge but I am not taking any chances.
The next morning I do one of walk-jogs around town and am now quite comfortable that I can navigate home without any problems. Any city that has some tall towers should be easy once you understand where your residence is with respect to this main features.
In the morning we tour around a bit including ascending the tallest structure, Lamberti Tower. We confess we used the elevator to get most of the way up. The views are breathtaking. That morning we also did some shopping. We are working on our steak knife collection and spotted a cutlery store. Fazzini Coltelleria (link link) has several shops in Verona but the flagship store is near our hotel. We come by and spend about 45 minutes going through knives, picking out a favorite set, and negotiating the price. We ended up with 2 more than we need so we expect to start Tabitha & Rich’s collection, not that they knew they were going to start one.
In the afternoon we go on a personal arranged tour. It was 3 hours and we walked all around town again. We learn much about the churches, the architecture, the art, the history, and current politics. Our tour guide had high energy and we enjoyed the lessons. We are very comfortable in Verona at this point but Nancy says 2 hours would have been a better tour length for her.
BTW the main tourist attraction is Juliet’s house as there is strong belief that the person or persons who wrote Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet based it on two feuding families in Verona with slightly modified names. There is no documented proof, but many people stop by to visit. One tradition is to stroke the breast of the Juliet’s bronze statue which will bring the stroker luck in love. Nancy says she has more luck than she can handle and declined to do any stroking.
That night we went for a dinner at Ostregheteria Sottoriva23 which was off the back alley of the hotel. Our tour guide told us that this is a place locals would go and we confess our food was pretty tasty and so far the best italian we have experienced.
We decided that we love Verona and gladly would return. Our only drawback is that by being first-time tourists to the area this will be our most expensive stop by far. Hotel was 550 euros (gorgeous view though), laundry was 100+ euros, and tour guide was 200 euros. Meals were not cheap either. However, we now have the gouge and are sure we could do the trip almost as nicely but much more economically. The way we figured it out was that our hotel was hosting a tour group from the USA which seemed to us to be out of their price range. So I did some research and discovered that the hotel has a pricing scheme not unlike airlines. They start high for in-season room booking made months in advance and then as the days get closer they price the rooms at much cheaper rates (half off) to keep the rooms filled. Next time I will work to book a nice room months in advance to protect me but check back as we get closer and book at the cheaper rate if available and then cancel my initial reservation.
In spite of the expense we loved everything about our stay in Verona and hope to do it again some day.
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