Verona

Today I am gonna talk about my first trip of this summer with my best friends – to Italy. When I say my first trip I mean first trip after my state exam because I was travelling a lot during Erasmus. Spending few days with my friends is almost our tradition (almost because it is only third time we went together but hopefully we will continue in future). It all started at my first year at the university. I met Marek immediately during my introduction week. I don’t even know how but we became close and now I can tell him everything I want to and he even visited me twice during my Erasmus! Three years ago we decided to go together for a holiday but we did not know with who and where. When we agreed on going to Amsterdam we were still only two. It was kind of difficult to find travelling mates. We were trying to convince a lot of people but we did not have a car and two days before the trip we still did not know with who we were going. In the end we found my friend Lucy from my university and we were three. We were able to go only in three people but later Lucy had a good idea to take her boyfriend Honza with us. We changed the place as well and instead of visiting Amsterdam we went to Budapest. It was an amazing trip. 

 As the time passed Lucy were not in the relationship anymore and we met a new friend – Matej. He is one year younger than me and he started studying at our university as well. We already met him during introduction week we organized. At that time I had no idea we could get closer together or even travelling together. It was perfect. The boys were good friends and we got to like Matej easily too. 

Our second year at the university became amazing thanks to these guys because we literally went to every party together. We celebrated birthdays together, we had confidence in each other, we went to the parties together and when semester ended we decided to travel together. Our destination was Rome, Italy. It was my first time there and I enjoyed it a lot. We used the plane to get there and we were together four days. I enjoyed being in Rome a lot – I liked Coloseum the most and we went to the sea as well. 

 Unfortunately, third year was much more difficult for us. Marek went to study his master programme to Utrecht, Lucy went to Luxembourg for an Erasmus and when she was back I already went to France for my Erasmus. Therefore, we did not have a lot of opportunities to be all together. Even though we were skyping few times or we saw each other abroad but it was not as before that we could see each other anytime we wanted to. Although we planned our holiday again and we decided to visit the lake Lago de Garda, Italy. Firstly, we wanted to visit Venezia or Florencia during our trip but when we found out we had only four full days we preferred spending more time near the lake than travelling by car all the time. We already spent a lot of time in the car any way. At the moment I am glad for this decision because it was perfect. 

The date was easy to arrange because when summer started Marek had only 10 days free before he was supposed to go to Indonesia. Therefore, we went there our first week of holiday. Lucy already had been there many times and I had many references about the place. We decided to go by car so we could easily change places and it was convenient for this trip. 

The first day of the trip

Matej picked me up in Prague and we headed to Plzen for Lucy 4th of July, Monday. We were supposed to go together but Marek found out there was cheaper way how to get from Netherlands to Italy for him – to take a plane directly from Netherlands to Verona in Italy. That´s why we were only three on our way there and we picked him up at the airport in Verona. 

Despite my negative experience with Airbnb we used it for our trip again because it was the cheapest option if I leave aside camping. We preferred Airbnb over camping because we wanted to cook sometimes and it was of course more comfortable. In the end we did not have any problem and all apartments were great. When we came to Plzen we did a big shopping to save money. Therefore, we bought all alcohol and few thing for cooking. The good thing was that we had small fridge with us so we could transfer food as well. We also changed money for euros. 

Lucy was not in a good mood because as a reward for state exams she got a present – new mobile phone but it was not working well with her sim card. Therefore she needed to solve it before the trip and she went to the repair shop. They did not tell her anything new and they just asked her about special password which she did not have. Unluckily, her former mobile phone stopped working at the same time and we did not have any maps. Fortunately, Matej took print screens of our way on his mobile phone so we managed to get there almost with no problems. I don’t know how it happened but Lucy´s former phone started to work in Italy and her new phone started to work with the sim as well haha.  

Travelling by car was tiring for Matěj I guess because he was driving whole time – 8 hours.  We had few breaks at the gas station and surprisingly I was not sleeping. We even managed to eat quite healthy because we bought expensive salad with chicken with Lucy and we ate it in the car. We got to the airport almost on time and we went to the Airbnb.

I was nicely surprised. The apartment looked really luxurious and it had even an air- conditioner. In addition, we received welcoming bottle of wine, breakfast, Nutellas, marmalade and so on. Unfortunately, we did not spend much time there because we came around 10 pm. We decided to explore the city a little bit so we proposed a toast with wine and we took a bus to the city centre. Later we found out we were living quite close to the city centre so we did not have to take a bus back. We walked a little bit there and we stopped near to the fountain where we were sitting for a while. When we were walking I realized that the streets were really quiet because there was nobody. Probably Verona is city only for tourists. This evening was quiet and when we got home we were playing our favourite game Whist.  

It my favourite non drinking game. The procedure is based on the famous game called Bridge. With every round one colour and sign is chosen to be the trump card and the cards are distributed. Every time someone lay on one card and another people have to declare the card with the same sign and if they don’t have that sign they have to declare trumps. In case they don´t even have trumps they can lay on any card they want to. If there are same signs the higher card wins. In each round someone wins the package of four cards.

The best thing about this game is that it is not important to win the package. The important thing is to guess how many packages you will win (take). Therefore, in the beginning of each round you are guessing how many packages you will take. If you are right you have 5 points for guessing plus the number of guessed packages. Also the number of guesses must be different than the number of cards in each round because in every round there must be someone who will lose. In addition, there is always different number of cards. You start with 11 and you continue with 9, 7, 5, 3, 1 and after it goes with even numbers – 2,4,6,8, 10 and 12. It is a logical game. After we went sleep and our plan for morning was exploring Verona better and then – moving to the south of the lake Lago de Garda. 

That Verona is a romantic city, everyone already knows. We can blame Mr. Shakespeare and his emblematic Tragedy "Romeo and Juliet". But the truth is that Verona itself is very conducive to romance. I could not go with my Romeo, so it was a bit sad and a bit uncomfortable.

However, the 3€ (if I'm not mistaken), were worth spending them. Not only because the garden is beautiful but also because it has a bathroom.

The photos speak for themselves but there is a whole lot of love in that garden that is worth being recited.

The normal price is 5€, which seems a bit absurd to pay for visiting a garden that is not that big. But, if you're a student, it's only 3€ and if you take someone with you it gets cheaper than a motel.

When we enter, we are soon surprised by a long path with green lined walls and stairs in the background.

On the right side (left in this photo) there is a kind of labyrinth made of shrubs as seen in movies like The Shinning.

It was quite funny because my friend and I went running super excited and when we got there, the bushes were only by our chest so it was not quite like the movies.

But we had fun trying to find the way out. (I'm very sorry for my face, but I had just won and I was trying to make my best champion face, because maybe I do not use it that often... )

On the left side of the corridor, there is more garden.

Probably, that's not the correct order or position, but at the time I was not too worried about decorating the shrub. I do guarantee that the photos are as authentic as the beauty and yes, it truly does exist.

Climbing the stairs...

And on top of them there is a face a bit... bizarre. Unfortunately, I do not have better photos but in this one below it's easy to see.

The bizarre face is a balcony that sits right at the top. It's a face (of something) with its mouth open. To get to the top you need to go up some paths like this:

I do not remember it very well but I do have the feeling that we went up some stairs to the part of the garden where the balcony is, if I'm not mistaken. I do not have photos of this garden, however, I have one of the view.

I can already say that this garden is an incentive of sorts to giving birth. There were a lot of cute couples, so it's a good idea (indeed) to spend a different afternoon. But it is not obligatory to be in a relationship to enjoy this garden. Any company like a good book or good music, even a good lunch is enough. The place does the rest. It is a cool place with benches (some improvised) for people to rest. Ideal for the whole family.

And the best, at least for me, is that not everyone knows about the Garden. At least that's my conclusion, because there were not too many people in there. It does make the place more personal.

Ah! I almost forgot! There is more! But honestly, I cannot explain very well what it was. I think it was a house (still inside the garden) where they would plant trees and so on. But nothing better than going there in person to see.

Enjoy yourself and also go to the bathroom. It is not bad at all and it is free.