"O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?"

and cue...

every song possibly known that has the words Romeo and Juliet.  I know I was singing every single one that I know of since the morning of the day that we went to Verona.  Yes...cheesy, I know. But I just can't help it! haha...

What is there to say about Verona? It is a beautiful city in Veneto in northern Italy.  It is rich in its artistic heritage, shows and operas in the beautiful Arena - the ancient amphitheater built by the Romans.  I honestly had no idea what to expect from Verona, but I was pumped about going! The only time I had heard of Verona before I left for Italy was through the movie "Letters to Juliet."  CUTE movie. If you have not seen it yet, you should!  These are the things that I got from the movie about Verona...it is a romantic city ( it is! ), and it is the home of Romeo and Juliet (yep!)  

You can't help but fall in love with this city.  Here are some pics :)

The famous arena

Ponte Scaligero

Precious balconies on almost every outer wall

Around the city there were plaques similar to this that describe the story of Romeo and Juliet

Porta Borsari

Old meets new

Statue of Dante: Author of the Divine Comedy and the father of italian language

Piazza dei Signori

Casa di Juliet! Another one of those I can't believe I'm actually seeing this moments! So much graffiti...
In the movie Letters to Juliet, supposedly one could place a letter to Juliet in the wall...but that is not really true :(  And also, for the film they had to clean up the area because people were using gum to stick letters to the wall..ek.

graffiti on the walls...layer upon layers of hearts, promises and 4 eva's...in different languages of course :)

The famous balcony!

Statue of Giulietta aka Juliet

and not to make your mouth water or anything...because mine sure is just looking at this pic haha
But this is a very traditional dish in Verona consisting of Polenta (which is a sort of cornmeal) and we never figured out what kind of meat...so mystery meat...but oh so good :)

Hope you enjoy the pics! 


Ciao, ciao!

Halfway there

It is crazy to think that time has been flying by and we are halfway through our program :( So much has happened since my last update and I wish I could post every single pic but that is almost impossible with the internet here.  Tomorrow we go to Sienna (one of my favorite places) and then next week we leave for Venice for 3 days, Verona for one day, and then fall break starts!  I will be going to Dublin, Ireland, Berlin, Germany and Paris, France over a course of 10 days...it is gonna be crazy but stinking awesome!  If you have been to any of these places I would love to hear of any recommendations you might have :) 


Anyways, here is a mixture of photos from my recent trip to Cinque Terre and Pisa!

The first five are from the town we were staying in when we first got there that night in Cinque Terre...Monterosso :)

These last couple up until Pisa, are pictures from while we were hiking on the trail!  

The first town we saw off the trail...Vernazza :)

Another town. ..Manarola!

On the trail going between Manarola and Riomaggiore there is a little part known as the via dell'amore...here many have placed a lock and thrown the key away into the vast depths of the waters to signify that their love is unbreakable. Cute, cute! If you go to Florence there is something similar along Ponte Vecchio :)

Check out the locks!

There was also some neat graffiti!

All of us girlies at the beach in Monterosso!

Cinque Terre is absolutely beautiful and if you get a chance to go...do it!

Right after Cinque Terre we had a VERY quick trip to Pisa..so I only got a few shots

And of course we took some pics with the leaning tower of Pisa...we tried out several poses and I like them all! Which one do you like best?? 

I hope you enjoy the pictures and I will have more to post soon!!


Ciao!
Chantel