Snakes, ladders, and views
My cousins were in town for a few days, and by "cousins", I mean my one cousin and her husband. Good times were definitely had. I met them on their way here in Verona, and we spent the day there. Verona is known for precisely two things: the Arena, which is a smaller but still-used version of the colosseum; and for being the setting for Romeo and Juliet.* There's a bronze statue of Juliet in a tiny little courtyard that has the distinguishing feature of one exposed breast, a breast that just happens to be orders of magnitude cleaner that the rest of the statue because it is touched so much. And it's not just the people do it mischievously, it's apparently "the thing to do" with the statue, and people were lining up to do it. I didn't, but I did get a good picture of a mother and infant child both groping away at the same time. I'm only sad that I missed the Japanese tourists going at it. I felt that would have been a powerful tableau.
There's also a balcony in the courtyard that is meant to cash in on the whole balcony scene in the play, but obviously it can't be that balcony since the whole thing was made up.
On Monday we went to Lago di Garda (a huge lake; pictures below) and made are way up some of the surrounding cliffs. Due to some confused map-reading, we ended up on a portion of a trail with some very rickety looking ladders that we later realized you were meant to have safety equipment for**. But, at the suggestion of a Brazilian friend of mine who came along, we went up. It was pretty freaky, and at the top, over some celebratory apples, the Brazilian decided to share with us that he was afraid of heights. So we went back down instead of continuing up to the peak. Still got some sweet views though.
On Tuesday we again went hiking, this time up to the peak in the middle of this picture.
That was a much more extensive elevation change (we climbed 1500m in about 4 hours). It wasn't as pleasant a trail though, since most of it was spent on ski trails going up as vertically as you can. Not very pretty, and very, very hot. Also, there were a surprising number of snakes, so it was a good thing the Brazilian wasn't along for this one, since he also apparently has a phobia of snakes. The views from the peak were awesome though, as were the celebratory apples. We were briefly scared by an incoming thunder storm from the neighbouring mountains, but it never reached us. I did, however get this great photo I affectionally call "Mordor from 2000 m".
And here is a photo from the second day's peak.
Here is the ladder we climbed up.
And here is a small corner of Lake Garda from 1000 m up.
*Capulets and Montagues existed, but Romeo and Juliet did not. But you probably already knew that.
**We realized this when Germans with safety equipment came by and told us you were supposed to have safety equipment.
There's also a balcony in the courtyard that is meant to cash in on the whole balcony scene in the play, but obviously it can't be that balcony since the whole thing was made up.
On Monday we went to Lago di Garda (a huge lake; pictures below) and made are way up some of the surrounding cliffs. Due to some confused map-reading, we ended up on a portion of a trail with some very rickety looking ladders that we later realized you were meant to have safety equipment for**. But, at the suggestion of a Brazilian friend of mine who came along, we went up. It was pretty freaky, and at the top, over some celebratory apples, the Brazilian decided to share with us that he was afraid of heights. So we went back down instead of continuing up to the peak. Still got some sweet views though.
On Tuesday we again went hiking, this time up to the peak in the middle of this picture.
That was a much more extensive elevation change (we climbed 1500m in about 4 hours). It wasn't as pleasant a trail though, since most of it was spent on ski trails going up as vertically as you can. Not very pretty, and very, very hot. Also, there were a surprising number of snakes, so it was a good thing the Brazilian wasn't along for this one, since he also apparently has a phobia of snakes. The views from the peak were awesome though, as were the celebratory apples. We were briefly scared by an incoming thunder storm from the neighbouring mountains, but it never reached us. I did, however get this great photo I affectionally call "Mordor from 2000 m".
And here is a photo from the second day's peak.
Here is the ladder we climbed up.
And here is a small corner of Lake Garda from 1000 m up.
*Capulets and Montagues existed, but Romeo and Juliet did not. But you probably already knew that.
**We realized this when Germans with safety equipment came by and told us you were supposed to have safety equipment.