Verona Monday 12 May, Day 19

We left Turin without too many regrets this morning. Our train to Milan was one of the fast trains and we had seats in business class, which was indeed very comfortable.  We were back to the real world of second class on the next leg from Milan to Verona, and where the first train was super fast, the second was achingly slow, stopping for long periods in the baking sun in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason. But the landscape all the way from Turin is spectacular, as the line seems to run more or less in parallel to the Alps. Strange to be sitting cooking in the sun gazing at snow covered mountains. We spent a lot of time looking out the window as the young couple in the neighbouring seats - a pretty Italian girl and a handsome French boy - spent most of the trip improving Franco-Italian relations. They were very nice though when they managed to come up for air.

A bit of a slog from the station to our hotel, not helped by me heading off in totally the wrong direction, but we got our bearings and found our way to our hotel on the Piazza Erbe in the old city. Where Turin is black with fumes, car choked and dark, Verona seems filled with light, bicycles and charm. It feels like there is something delightful around every corner and down every little street.

We walked over to visit the 13th Century church of Saint Anastasia, which amongst other wonders has hanging from the roof in one side chapel the rudder from an Ottoman galley destroyed in the Battle_Of_Lepanto.

After the church we walked over the Roman bridge Ponte Della Petra to visit the Roman theatre, which unfortunately was closed. Stopped for a drink in a café next to the river near the bridge, and liked it so much we stayed there for a simple but delicious dinner, then back to our hotel where we had a fruit plate on the terrace watching the world go by in the piazza below.

The influence of Venice is evident here in the proliferation of statues and crests of the lion of St Mark, which became the emblem of Venice. There is a marvellous example on the Piazza Erbe outside our window.