May 19, 20 - M. Terme & Verona

May 19th was a lovely day, but we have few pictures of the good stuff. Penny went to a spa after lunch. We used the funicular railway twice to go to the upper town. We saw a lovely nativity night diaorama in an old church and had a wonderful meal in the old upper town - M. Alto. Back down at about 11:30 pm and walk the short distance to our hotel.

During our day we saw this really strange cross. Look at the details. Seems pretty Pagan to me!














May 20th was another moving day - from M. Terme to Verona, then slightly east of Verona. Maybe 25o KM or so. Big distance for Europe.

This is the parting shot of the Hotel Astoria where we stayed in M. Terme.

On the road to Verona, we got lost more that once, but the result was worth the effort. We did not enjoy Verona overly, so decided to find accomodations closer to the countryside. We missed an exit and discovered Soave (see tomorrow).





This is a shot of the area near the arena in Verona (where we had lunch). Crowded, poor value, try to avoid.











Verona has the awesome arena. But now they are doing opera in the arena and have plastered the whole thing with advertising. And outside the arena are some of the sets for Aida. Lovely.

On the positive side, we stayed in a pretty bad hotel east of Verona where the lady on the dsek put us onto two of the best restaurants we encountered the whole trip - which is really saying something. The evening of May 20th we journeyed into the countryside (about 15 km in all) to a wonderful placy far from the beaten track. This made up for all the frustrations of the day.