Verona - the Porta Borsari and Juliet's Balcony

This was our last full day in Italy, and just like yesterday it started off with heavy rain but cleared up beautifully by about 10am: we've been really lucky with the weather!

Today's activity was a coach trip to Verona, with a one-hour guided tour and then some free time before the return journey back to our hotel at Lake Garda. Our guide was a young chap with a great sense of humour, but he was very knowledgeable and interesting.

As with all the places we've visited this week, we'd never been to Verona and we were impressed by how beautiful and historic it is.

The main blip shows the Porta Borsari. It's a lovely old Roman gateway, dating from the 1st century AD, though it was most likely built over a pre-existing gate from the 1st century BC. An inscription dating from emperor Gallienus's reign however reports another reconstruction in 265 AD. It's certainly impressive.

The city was very busy, with tourists and native Italians (after all, it was Sunday). So although we were able to go to the courtyard where Juliet's balcony is situated (see the extra), the queue to touch the naked left breast of the statue of Juliet (situated next to the balcony), which men are supposed to be able to do to make a wish for success in love, was too long for us to wait. (Apparently women are only supposed to touch Juliet's finger.) Too bad...maybe next time...!

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