Moving very slowly through the morning, we finally got out to go for a short walk and to the super market.  About a block past the Eurospar, the name of the supermarket, we went into a small dark church, the church of Santa Caterina.  

Shopping done we came home and had some lunch and it began to drizzle.  Undaunted, we met Luisa with her car under the Porta Nuova.  Waiting for her, I spotted this on the wall:

 

We met Paolo, the father of our exchange student, Virginia, for a very special treat.  Paolo’s job is involved with historic restoration.  First he took us to a new building of the University of Verona. This was built by the Austrians, probably late 18th century,  as a huge bakery to make some kind of bread and crackers for soldiers.  Paolo is amazed by the precision of the old work of the stone and brick as well as by the beautiful job of making it new.:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there we drove up into the hills to the east of the center.  We parked and walked up a paved road and then a dirt road to see the medieval towers of the old walls of Verona.  Paolo has the keys for some of the gates and we even were able to go under the walls. He showed us places that had taken years to clean out.  He and Luisa both kept saying “Not every tourist gets to see this.”  To me, the ancient architecture and the history were fascinating but I was totally distracted by the absolute beauty of the sunset light on the trees and the towers. Verona had 48 towers in the middle ages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paolo took us to a beautiful spot to see over the city in the pink light:

We went to a balcony at the Don Calabria church and convent.  Luisa had wonderful, personal stories to tell of her family’s involvement with the university and even with Don Calabria. The view there was stunning too:

Luisa dropped us off back in the city and we were tired and it was raining.   We went out to a pizza place but I didn’t really love it.  Du de Cope, has great salads and the pizza dough bread is nice but I didn’t like the pizza we ordered.  We walked home on via Mazzini and stopped at Grom.

Walking through the wide, pedestrian streets bordering the Arena and Piazza Bra on a wet night, with my umbrella and an ice cream cone is simply magic.  Every stone is sparkling and I am able to be in that moment fully.  This is what we came here for, and I am happy — even if the pizza sucked.