Monday 8th August - Wednesday 10th August - Verona/Venice/Bologna

The Opera was amazing.   Very exciting to be there, in the middle of the ancient Verona Arena, witnessing Aida.   There was a cast of thousands - well - dozens...   Vast array of personnel - sizes, ages, and roles, including a dozen or so kids...
Sadly there was not the luxury of having the words being sung appearing in a thread over the stage, so we were a bit lost as to the meaning of the theatre...
When the THIRD interval came, just before mid-night, Arch and I (somewhat guiltily) fled..... Philistines....  I know.   I'm sure we missed the best bit - i.e. The Finale......  Tough.

Arrived in Venice by late morning.....
Once off the train we bravely boarded an overcrowded Vaporetto to a stop nearby our hotel - dragging suitcases - stepping on people - up and over more stairs.......
God, what to say - Venice is still Venice......
Still just a swirling maelstrom of tourists, tourists, tourists.....
Did have a wander late afternoon/evening when many of the mob had departed, but really, it's still the same strange place.
Did go on a trip to Murano, to have a wee look at the making of the lovely Murano glassware.
Bought something........     Arthur had a panic attack...    He's okay now!
Our room was VERY comfortable, very small, and insanely over-furnished with scarlet velvet drapes - on the window and over the bed!!!  A small circular dining table and 2 chairs - totally unrequired - finished off the over-furnishing of the room.   We had to tip-toe around the room.  Comfy bed and bathroom though...
And our room was on the same floor as a very pleasant roof-top bar - lovely way to end a tough day...
Huge storm came through at about 3am and rain and wind quite amazing......  We had the bathroom windows - two on different walls - open to dry some washing (of course) and the bathroom flooded....  Yikes......  The staff would've wondered what had happened in there!!!!

Anyway, back on another fast train to Bologna, arrived about mid-day again.   Good, comfy train, and travelling First Class, with a reserved seat, takes a lot of stress about getting on the train, although on this one, fairly full, EVERYBODY had enormous suitcases, and there was nowhere to store them.  There was some overhead storage shelves, and thankfully one Aussie man-mountain on board who had the strength (and willingness) to lift many suitcases up there.  Would not have been able to move down the aisles without his efforts...

Got to our hotel in Bologna a bit early, our rooms weren't ready, however they kindly invited us to sit in the lovely little garden, beside the breakfast room, and have a coffee and croissant.
We witnessed a gorgeous bit of local theatre from down there.......

This small garden was situated right below a wall of a 3-storey apartment block.  Mama on Floor 2 had a tablecloth (or something.....) hanging over the window sill, when Mama on Floor 3 decided that shaking a large tablecloth out HER window would be a good thing to do.   I happened to be watching and said to Arch, "pity about the stuff on the lower level"...    20 seconds later the shouting and banging on floors started between the two Mamas.    God, it was wonderful.....  More frantic shaking of cloths out the windows ensued for about 5 minutes.   Finally peace was restored.....  Isn't communal living something else, particularly amongst Latins who are not afraid to "let it rip" verbally.

Bologna is a truly lovely town, it has about 50kms of wonderful, intact colonnades all over the city, and it gives the impression of being a pretty successful part of the country.  Big name fashion house shops abound, and it seems to us that the vast majority of folk here are actually locals, not tourists, at least not foreign tourists.   Much better feel than Venice....  definitely never going there again!

We climbed FOUR HUNDRED AND NINETY EIGHT wooden steps up the ancient Asinelli Tower, the tallest tower in Italy,   Surprisingly we were okay, but VERY hot and sticky...   Great views of lots of red roofs and the hills a few kms out of town,   Bologna is actually a very low city, no monstrous buildings at all.  Quite proud of ourselves that we did it!

Sat for about 3 hours at a cafe in a busy thoroughfare last evening, just people-watching.  It was wonderful, and you really do see everything.  Many young kids here - it's a very busy University Town, and students from all over the world come here to study, so they added to the tapestry of life passing in front of us.   There are so many dogs of all shapes and sizes, it's amazing, and they really do go everywhere;  in handbaskets, in the baskets on bicycles, perched on top of the hoods of baby strollers, sitting on laps of people in wheelchairs.... even occasionally walking!!!

Have never seen so many smokers......  Old and young, men and women.....  Bad and stinking!

Another storm last night, again torrential rain, which lasted for a few hours.  Fine this morning (Thursday), and a bit overcast.   We have the day to fill today, before boarding a train this afternoon to go over to Ancona on the east coast of Italy, from where we board a ferry this evening to take us to Zadar in Croatia.  We have one night there, and then board our Cruise 'ship' - 38 passengers - yay!!! Our friends from the UK, Heather and John Jordan are joining us for the cruise, and it will be wonderful to catch up with them for more than 48 hours!!!

Very pleasant T-shirt wearing weather......

Going to pack now, to move on once more...    Be back later.....