Three trains and four hours later, and we have left the majestic mountains ,with their fast running streams, for the dryer climate of Italy. Gone are the wooden houses with their colourful flower baskets, now the house are stone or concrete.
Guess what, we found the goats for you? They are real and only found in quite a small region.
We arrived safely in Verona where it was unusually hot for this time of the year. Taxi to the guest house. Big locked door. No answer on the bell. Check with the neighbour, yes they will come. Here they are. Pauline and John have the courtyard,we have the Juliet balcony. No sign of Romeo ,oops sorry Mike.
Off we went to explore. The city has some Roman ruins. The main arena has its original facade but is being used for events so internally has been altered, with metal gates in the lower arches.
This was part of the town wall . The wall itself was added to with new gates ,but eventually ,as the city grew was demolished.Now they have remove 2-3 metres of building materials to reveal the hidden past below the street.
The old city has many beautiful buildings and we did go into the doorway of two churches dating back to the 1300’s. As I write this the church bells are chiming the hour. 
The murals in This church had marks where the plaster had been nicked so the new plaster could be put on top. The murals were only discovered 100 years ago and decades of plaster were removed.
This is the famous Juliet balcony and wall where ,it is believed,the inspiration for Shakespeare ‘s play lived. If the real Juliet had been there, she would never have seen or heard Romeo over the throng of people all crowded into a small courtyard.
Tempting as this seems to weary travellers, we resisted. Dinner was at a local, not tourist restaurant. It did not open till seven and even then the owners were surprised we wanted to come and eat then. We avoided such delicacies as horse meat and cuttlefish, were doubtful about the cockerel, no salmon so took safe route of beef. Perfect.
The next adventure before we catch the train to Venice in the afternoon
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suzannesingletonbrown@hotmail.com
I love the goats! Also love the changing landscape and building materials and styles as you progress through the holiday. Were there letters to Juliette, in the wall, like in the movie?
Not sure Nicole, sadly , there were too many people to check.There was a wall where people were writing and there is a Juliette Society where you can write letters to Guilette at the Club Di Guilette and they will reply. You can even email them…..they have moved with the times. Look up the site if you have time. It is interesting because they have traced Shakespeare’s play back to real people. Hope you are feeling better. Cheers Sue