During our two days we fell in love with the vibrant and historically interesting city of Brescia. So, it was somewhat reluctantly we left this morning for the one-hour drive to Verona. However, we did have a last little Brescian bonus before leaving. That was a visit to the Teatro Grande built in 1810 in honour of Napoleon. The building houses a beautiful theatre with five tiers of boxes, decorated with frescoes, stucco and gilding. Unfortunately, the theatre was not open to visitors, but the dazzling Salone del Ridotto was. It is effectively the foyer for the adjoining theatre and is said to be one of the finest examples of Brescian Rococo.

I visited Verona nine years ago and thought it very attractive and culturally interesting, and therefore a place I’d like to show Sharon. It’s connection with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has certainly helped keep the tourist crowds coming. And it was the crowd factor that soon after arrival became a negative for us. Compared with Brescia's relative calm, Verona was crawling with tourists. Our excellent Hotel Accademia was very conveniently located in the centre of the old town. The volume of tourists pushing their way up and down adjacent lanes made doing any walking in any direction quite unpleasant. 

However, over the next two days we did manage to see the main sights, and by getting out outside peak times we did enjoy wandering the streets in the comparative quiet. I enjoyed an opera presentation of Turandot with a couple of thousand other opera fans in the Verona Arena, a smaller version in remarkably good condition of Rome’s Colosseum. This was a special experience for me, and something I always wanted to do after hearing about others experiencing a magnificent musical production amongst the ancient ruins of Athens. Prior to the opera, we had an excellent dinner experience in a narrow laneway where the restaurant arranged two opera singers to serenade its patrons during their meal. 

We left Verona with mixed feelings; we might return, but if we did, it would have to be in a much quieter tourist season.