Our second day started around 4:30 in the morning I think.  We are seriously jet-lagged.  We had breakfast in our room, and then made our way to the train station.  Even though the area in Rome that we were in wasn’t that nice, it was incredibly convenient to be only a few blocks from the station.  As we were walking around the station trying to figure out how it worked and where everything was, we again congratulated ourselves for being so smart and allowing a lot of built in time to our schedule.  We were also quite glad that we had made our reservations for the train in advance!  We eventually managed to active our Eurail passes and locate the right platform for the train.  The trip itself was pretty uneventful.  We enjoyed looking out of the window, and visiting the restaurant car.  I passed my time by reading the guidebook, and looking at the scenery, and Dori spent some time writing a list of Italian phrases that I could use.  Things like “I need my wife”  It was nice being on a high speed train, and the trip only took about 3 hours.

We found our cab and made it to the place we are staying where we were greeted by our hostess, Ornella , who was very welcoming and made us lunch.  The apartment is very nice, we’re on the second floor of a newish looking apartment building about a mile and a half from Idea Verona.  We have our own bedroom, but we must share the bathroom.  Unfortunately the flat does not have air conditioning, but there are fans and a little balcony off of our room that provides some air flow.  The heat and humidity here is going to take some getting used to. After lunch, we again crashed for a four or five hour siesta.

When we woke up around six, we decided to head into the city for a tour.  Just for fun, we decided not to look up any directions or take any maps with us.  The good news is: 1.  We made it to the city.  2.  We made it home – though we did get a little lost at the end, and 3.  The whole trip is a lot faster if you have a map.  We ended up going very far out of the way to get to where we were going.  On the other hand, we got to see a lot of really cool stuff that we wouldn’t have otherwise.

Verona itself is unlike anything I have seen before.  We came in from the north, and one of the first parts of the city that we saw was castelvecchio.  The castle looks amazing and I can’t wait to visit the museum inside, which I understand has an arms and armor section.  From the castle, we continued into the city, which is filled with old buildings, small roads, and lots of cafes which line the sidewalks of the larger streets.  Many of the areas of the city feel very isolated from each other.  With the buildings so close, it’s hard to tell if there is anything nearby at all, and then all of the sudden you turn a corner and there is a gigantic plaza filled with people and statues and food, and you’re still trying to figure out exactly how it got there.