Verona

Early Saturday morning started our third excursion with our program to Verona and Venice. We spent Saturday morning and early afternoon in Verona, which is a beautiful town. At risk of being really repetitive with my pictures, I am going to show you the most unique things about Verona.

This building is an excellent example of how all the buildings in Verona used to look. The whole outside of the building is painted with frescoes. In Roman times, the entire outside and inside of buildings were painted with frescoes.

Some of an original road in Verona. It was actually true that "all roads led to Rome," and if I remember correctly this was a major road that led from Verona to Rome.

Verona is probably most well-known as the setting for Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." We learned that although Romeo and Juliet never actually existed in Verona, their families or families similar to the ones in the story did exist. This is what they say is the entrance to Romeo's house.

This is one of the walls of the pathway that lead's to Juliet's house. People used to be able to leave letters on Juliet's wall asking questions about love. If you've seen "Letters to Juliet," it was similar to what happens in the movie. This is no longer allowed, but you can write something on either side of the pathway that leads to Juliet's house.

Juliet's famous balcony.

Legend has it that if you touch Juliet's golden breast, you and your lover will happy forever.

This is a huge theatre in Verona. It is like a smaller version of the Colosseum.

In the late afternoon, we went a little outside of Verona to a quaint little vineyard and had wine tasting:

We tried three different red wines, including one sweet red wine which was delicious. I have never liked red wine very much, but since being here it has really grown on me. The host had some delicious cheese with jam on top to serve with the wine. It was so classy.

After the wine tasting, we took a tour of the vineyard and learned a little bit about the process of making wine. The process of making wine begins with the harvest of the grapes:

The beautiful vineyard.

They take only the best grapes from the vines. The rest are left for tourists like us to taste :)

The grapes are then places in wooden crates so that they can dry out:

As the grapes dry out, the sugar concentration increases in the grape which increases the alcohol content.

After the grapes are dried, they are all mashed up in this big machine:

Once the grapes are all mashed up, the chemicals and spices are added and the mixture is placed in large metal containers to initiate the fermentation process. Once the mixture has fermented, the wine is placed into wooden barrels to allow them to age:

Once the wine has aged the specified amount of time, the owners bottle it to sell:

Just like with the balsamic vinegar experience, this was another experience that was very non-touristy. Verona and the vineyard was another wonderful Italian Saturday :)

Ciao,

Sarah