This is the last day of the garden tour and there are no gardens in this post but there is interesting history. I will be on my own in Venice tomorrow but will send a blog showing what I find.
We stopped in Verona for a guided tour of the old city.
They were having a marathon through the streets and it was quite crowded. They were also getting ready for an outdoor opera to be performed at the ancient arena.
The old wall surrounding old Verona is 12 km. long and almost a thousand years old.
Our guide was telling us that the Roman arena has been in use for 2000 years and that the Romans used good materials such as marble when building it.
Our guide was explaining that there will be 14,000 people for the opera here in June when he was interrupted by a trumpet playing to test the acoustics.
Street scenes and our guide discussing frescos on the buildings
Fountain and our guide discussing Napoleon and destruction of lion statue in Verona.
Dante’s Plaza and a poster advertising ‘Inferno’ play.
We tried to see Juliet’s balcony made famous by Shakespeare’s play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (‘O Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo?’). There were too many people and the crowds made it impossible to enter the archway. But towards the end of the bottom video, if you look carefully through the arch, you can see a snippet of the arch on the right.
SCROVEGNI CHAPEL
Since we were in Padua and it is a special privilege to see this chapel and the amazing frescos by Giotto, we got special tickets to get in.
This is the first of 7 videos which analyzes the artistry of the frescos which I filmed because they told us that photos would not be allowed to be taken in the chapel. But once we got into the chapel we were allowed to take pictures without flash so I took a series of photos and 1 video of the whole chapel which duplicates the professionally made video. I am posting both here so you can take your choice.
Mary and Joseph and the Nativity
Jesus’s childhood through Golgotha
Crucifixion and the meaning of God’s sacrifice
The final judgement
The world ends
Meditating on the meaning and the essence of our humanity
Actual photos of the chapel:
Giotto did these frescos around the year 1300. It took 2 years and 40 helpers to do the job.
VENICE
Loading the baggage onto the boat and heading to the hotel
First views of Venice.
Eating dinner in Venice. The last photo is by Bruce Wakefield.
Looks like you were in town for Straverona! I believe the longest distance was the half marathon. The Verona marathon is normally held in November. I was supposed to run it last year, had to downgrade to the half due to injuries, and ended up having an interesting experience overall that wasn’t that great but Verona the city was cute!