Toscana - Verona

Quick update from Verona and some photos. We spent our last day in Tuscany doing washing and other chores before an afternoon drive to the northern hills of Tuscany. We lunched in Bagni di Lucca and gelatoed in Barga. Both were charming little towns, Bagni di Lucca was prominent as an 18th century riverside spa town. Barga as a walled hilltop village that often got into scraps with Pisa.

We drove north this morning to Verona for just one night before we go onto Venice tomorrow to board our cuise. Verona has some great buildings, stripy brickwork seems to be the distinguishing architectural feature.

One of the big attractions is of course the alleged home of Juliet Capulet from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. Whether it is truly the setting for this great romantic tale is debatable. The house belonged to the Capella family from which Capulet is supposedly deduced. I have read elsewhere though that the actual balcony was added in more recent centuries by an entrepreneur seeking to capitalise on the growing Juliet tourism the town was receiving. But then again maybe I'm just a heartless unromantic old cynic.

Our apartment is lovely, owned by a French lady married to an Italian and styled in shabby chic, very glam and luxurious.

There is a festival in town this weekend so the kids enjoyed some acrobatic street performers doing all kinds of tricks, there were also some drummers with flag throwers but not quite as talented as Lucca's.

Nice dinner in the Piazza watching the world go by, looking forward to more of that in Rome.

Barga-Verona