Italy: Days 9 & 10

Verona, Views from Above, and Arrivederci, Italy

Our last full day in Italy started with a walking tour of Verona, led by a local guide. The bus took us up to Santuario della Madonna di Lourdes di Verona (Shrine of our Lady of Lourdes). We stood a long time on the plaza outside the church, admiring and snapping dozens of pictures of the view of Verona. Beautiful!

Back on the bus, we headed down to the banks of the Adige River. Within about 15 minutes, I had imbibed all the history I could handle, so the Jazzman and I set out on our own. The previous night, on our informal walking tour, we had seen some shop windows that we found interesting, so we went exploring. We had a great time walking along ancient streets and admiring beautiful and interesting things in windows and stores. After a while, we wanted to stop for lunch and headed back to the Piazza della Erbe and to the same caffè where we had dined the previous evening.

The day was beautiful, the food was—as with most every meal we had enjoyed in Itay—delicious, and the people-watching was terrific!

We wandered on the piazza for a while, looking at the kitschy little items offered by the vendors, buying a couple of goodies for friends and relatives, and then we headed back toward the hotel. Because of my painful knee, we didn't do a lot of the historical explorations that we might have done, but—really—sometimes there's only so much one can do!

Sara, our tour director, had promised a surprise before our farewell dinner. We all gathered downstairs, then started walking toward the Piazza Bra. We stood there for five or ten minutes, wondering what would happen next. Then Sara told us to turn around, and we saw a caffè with tables set out for us. She told us she was treating us to spritzes. Well, we had seen these picturesque orange drinks at most every caffè we had passed since we arrived in Verona. A few of us had tried them already, but there was much excitement around the tables! Here's more about the spritz, very popular in Italy right now.

After spritzes and bar snacks, it was time to go to the chosen restaurant for our farewell dinner. We headed to Ristorante Greppie. I can't even begin to tell you what we ate; all our meals, equally incredible, are glommed together in my mind now. But I can tell you we ate and drank and laughed. Then headed back to the hotel to finish packing and saying goodbye to the new friends whom we wouldn't see in the morning.

Let me say a word about our tour director, Sara. What a brilliant woman! She is a lifelong learner. She decided at a young age that she wanted to learn everything she could in her life. Sara speaks many languages, is a sommelier, and an academe. In addition to her university position in Torino, she leads tours to several European and Eastern European countries. And she is so fashionable! Each time I looked at her and her personality and style, I could see my granddaughter in a similar position in twenty years. Sara went out of her way at every opportunity to make our tour the best it could be.

But she hates pictures of herself. One of her cardinal rules is "no pictures of the tour director." So here's a picture she would allow: As she was dressing for dinner, the back strap on her dress broke. So she just reached into her bag of stunning jewelry, pulled out this brooch, and used it for a closure. Brilliant and beautiful.

In the morning, we loaded up the bus, drove to the Venice airport, and began the long process of boarding passes, security checks, and waiting for our flight. Then Atlanta, then Pittsburgh, a van to transport us, and Home, Sweet Home.

I've been to Europe many times—probably 25 or more. But this tour, with our dearest friends, seeing beautiful places and eating delicious food, has to be one of the best trips I've ever taken. Thanks to the Jazzman for making it possible.

Some postscript thoughts: While searching for links for these posts, I found a couple that would be very useful for anyone planning a trip on their own. Check these out: Offbeat Travel and Italy Beyond the Obvious: Tips and advice from a former tour guide.

Most of the photos I've used in this [very long] account of our trip were mine. I also had some very nice shots from various locations—those, unfortunately, are on my Nikon CoolPix camera that is still somewhere in Italy. But the Jazzman also had quite a few great shots. So I'm sharing with you now something that caught his eye. When the tobacconist closes for the night, there's still a tobacco vending machine to satisfy your nicotine fit. Cute, huh?

Thanks for reading, and thanks—again—to my friend Jill for nudging me along to get this written.