The Juliens: Daytrip to Verona (for Bollito Misto)

Sunday the four of us, and GP and Amy and Milena and Viviana and Catalin (Christine's graduate school advisor who happens to be visiting) took a day trip to Verona. The forecast called for it to be in the 40s and rainy in Trento all day and to be not in the 40s and not rainy all day in Verona. The sun decided not to make an appearance so it didn't quite make it to 50 degrees, but it did not rain on us. Our first stop was the arena. The Verona Arena is a Roman amphitheatre built in the first century. It is still used today, most famously for opera performances. It is (perhaps obviously) open air. It can seat 15,000 people (30,000 back when they didn't care about safety). The acoustics of the elliptically shaped arena are striking. The children enjoyed scrambling up and down the concentric limestone steps. The parents tried not to picture their children bouncing head over heel down the large slick stone steps, replaying some modern gladiatoresque scene in the sand below. During the holidays Verona constructs a large metal star outside the arena with a trail that originates from within the arena. As holiday decorations go it was top shelf.

One of Verona's specialties is bollito misto, which translates to mixed boiled. It is also a specialty of Piemonte. GP is from Piemonte, and ever since he heard a story from a cabbie 7 years ago about how good the bollito misto was in Verona he has wanted to try it. We let him pick the place for lunch. He did a pretty fantastic job. The place, Locanda di Castelvecchio, managed to be both fancy and unpretentious. The decor was sort of 1900's chic; think ceiling mirrors, dusty whisky bottles, giant paper snowflakes, and mounted deer heads with bedazzled brooches on their ears. The service was excellent; they didn't seem fazed (or even annoyed) by our boisterous four. Most importantly, the bollito misto was ridiculously good. When you translate to "mixed boiled" it doesn't sound like much. Out of the kitchen and around the tucked tables came a large brass and lacquer cart piled with various steaming meats: pork, beef, sausage, tongue (cured and not); all cut, portioned, and salted tableside. I'm not sure what they did to the meat before they "boiled" it, but they should continue to do it. The meat was served with four sauces: horseradish, mostarda (spicy Italian "chutney"), salsa verde (a green parsley sauce typical of Piemonte), and pearà (a brown bread, bone marrow, and pepper sauce typical of Verona; much to GP's chagrin, we shall refer to it as Veronese gravy). It was the kind of place that doesn't have menus (or printed prices), but it was my understanding that it was also fairly priced (Catalin very graciously treated us to lunch).

After lunch we took a walk through Piazza della Erbe and Piazza dei Signori (also called Piazza Dante). We finished our day by visiting the outside of Casa di Giulietta (a restored 13th century building which had belonged to the Cappello family, which really if you think about it is close enough to Capulet) and a gander at "Juliet's balcony". On the way back to the parking garage we stopped for some gelato, because, gelato.

I took some pictures.

First picture and it's already lunch time...

In Roman times the arena was used for bloody spectacle, often involving wild animals.

Christmas decorations, Verona-style

Statue of a soldier near the arena, I don't believe he was a gladiator.

concentric limestone steps

because patterns are pretty

Three year olds are so easy to keep safe in a wide open space full of hard wet stones that are stacked (at intervals just higher than 3 year old legs) to unresistable heights.

unresistable heights, I said

no one fell on their head

because patterns are pretty, I said

the giant spiky metal star from inside one of the arena gates

kids pretending to be civilized (photos are better than movies for pretending)

mirrored ceiling and paper snowflakes

aforementioned cart of boiled meats (plus unknown juvenile photo-bomber)

statuary ouside arena

festive Verona street with views of Torre dei Lamberti

life sized nativities are fun (on Piazza della Erbe)

life sized nativities are fun, I said

the winged lion of Mark (on Piazza della Erbe)

artsy-fartsy photo of said winged lion

artsy-fartsier

A whale rib hanging in an arch between Piazza della Erbe and Piazza die Signori. It is said to have hung there for 1000 years and will fall when the first person that has never told a lie walks beneath.

Amy and three little girls on the steps of the Palazzo della Ragione. I don't know the reason.

This guy stands over this arch directly behind a towering statue of Dante with what appear

to be a shot put or small canon ball. I'm not entirely sure of his intentions.

another of Dante's neighbors

iron work on the Scaliger Tombs

The tombs are funerary monuments to the Scaliger family who ruled Verona in the 13th and 14th centuries, whose symbol (as you may have guessed) was a ladder.