"VT and Verona :)" a Verona Travel Page by Sjalen

Verona, second largest city of the Veneto, was never on my "must see" list and I didn't really think a lot about it as an Italian destination too even if I had friends who had past it and knew it was Romeo and Juliet's city. Then suddenly I wanted to go somewhere to celebrate final exams and husband pedal_fool's birthday and as it was Italy the year before, I - the family holiday planner - decided to go for Italy again as VT had its FIRST OFFICIAL EURO MEETING 6-8 May 2005 and we could then combine it with Venice which had tempted me since childhood. I couldn't make the entire VT meeting due to exams, but what I did join became one of the funniest parties I've been to...and I still missed the belly dancing!!! :))) It was just so nice to meet Claus (cachaseiro), Holger (HORSCHECK), Dannie (irisbe) and Chiara (pollon) again, not to mention finally meeting regular friends like Gillian, MariaJoy and Jessica-B. And then of course all of you other wonderful VT people. I never spoke enough to any of you, but benazer, matcrazy1, Carmela, Stace (beach_dog), KristaB, lotharlech, Michael (globetrott), Kinga freespirit, els (mahieu), Tanja, barbara, ma&pakettle, bradbrown, Paolo (uttz), Boris (croisbeauty), Sue (sue_stone), Umer (pakistaniguy), Declan (kulprit), Darja, Paola, Mario and all the rest...it was GREAT to see you!!!

So what about Verona itself? Did it surprise me? You bet it did. As I had decided to go, I read up on it like I do with my destinations, but I was nevertheless pleasantly surprised to find friendlier people than I expected in the rich north - being as I am a bit biased towards Sicily :))) I also found the city scenic with its hills and the river. Nature is everywhere with the Alps ever present in the distance and because of this, the stones paving the city's streets are full of well kept fossils from the Alpine natural history. There is plenty to see, not just the famous Arena, and it is also an excellent base for touring the region's vineyards or Lake Garda.

The party soon got into full swing! Take a look at the travelogue to see the rest of the pictures.