I had a mission in the morning.  I wanted to visit a coffee place I had read about online.  So we walked, about 20 minutes out of the centro to find it.  (We’ve made up with google and are besties again).  After the walk we finally came to a gate in a residential area and buzzed the bell.  Turns out this place is a small factory where they roast and bag the coffee, but you cannot drink it there.  We laughed it off, at least we got to smell it.

Next we wanted to find the real Bottega della Gina because we realized we had been in the wrong place last time.  On the  way, I stopped into a jewelry store to ask if they could repair my bracelet.  She directed me around the corner to a tiny shop where they don’t sell anything.  He just does jewelry repairs.  He fixed my bracelet in 3 minutes (I could have done it myself if I’d had the right tools here) and then I asked him a bout fixing my ring, which was my dad’s and the gold just split shortly before we left.  He said he would, but I would have to come back tomorrow.  So, I left one of my most valuable possessions with him–no receipt, no nothing, just a smile.  His name is Leonardo.  He looks to be about 35 years old, while the shop seems to be at least a hundred,  and he has a great little twinkle in his eye.

Moving on, we found the real Bottega with a great array of fresh pasta–we’ll have to go back.  Wandering around we saw this beautiful synagogue:

I stopped into a florist and bought a little red cyclamen for our apartment.  Couldn’t believe they were showing this right out front:

We call this a weed sometimes in Tallahassee.

We came home for lunch of salad and left overs and had a nice rest.  And took another walk in the afternoon finally ending at the Arena.  Built in the 1st century, before the Roman Colosseum, it is an amazing piece of history and really the touristic star of Verona.  We walked out onto the sand on the bottom and then climbed to the top and walked around to the “ala” part which is most often photographed.  It was a little scary for me up there on the old stone with no hand rails.

 And then we had a time getting down.  Finally with the help of a Russian family who also couldn’t manage we all jumped off of the wall and back to the sandy bottom.

the ubiquitous “FUCK” even here

We are watching the construction of a giant Christmas star in Piazza Bra.  I hope it is up before we leave.

Dinner was at Locanda4Cuochi.  We had been there for lunch last year and repeating was worthwhile.  It’s creative cuisine for sure.  I started with a salad with fresh porcini but also toasted hazelnuts and little cubes of apples–really nice flavor combination.  Ken had a pasta with a non tomato veal sauce.  Then he had roast pork with the fabulous green (broccoli and romesco mixed was my guess) egg shaped “croquettes”, but not fried.  And I had venison with tiny bits of beets and apple puree.  Great dish.  We drank a bunch of wines by the glass, Franciacorta, some local reds and an Amarone.  We finished with a sweet Ricioto di Soave and a great chocolate, hazelnut, banana sesame dessert.

The walk home was short and sweet.  Man, I am loving this trip!