Verona

Last time I was talking about our trip to Italy to Lago di Garda. We spent our first night in nice apartment, we walked a little bit and second day was here.

We got up quite early and we went to the city centre of Verona. We looked into the map and we chose places we wanted to see. We were walking to the city centre and we saw few churches. My friend told me about the special church which has two floors in a Romanesque and Gotic style but the entrance was expensive so we did not go there. Actually I guess that entrance was around three euros but we already went to the tower and we agreed on low cost trip.

We had only half day to go through the city and I think it was enough because the city was not big. There is a river called Adige. The weather was too sultry. We already started to complain about it after two minutes of walking.

In Verona, there is small Colloseum as in Rome. We heard that earlier there were a lot of fights but nowadays it serves for theatre plays. Colloseum was my favourite sight in Rome. Although we did not go inside either. On our way we saw a big market with all dainty food. We wanted to eat immediately strawberries in chocolate or ice-cream. We were already hungry but it was too early so we decided to go back after the lunch.

Of course we saw many amazing pizzas as well. Another main attraction where we wanted to go to was the famous Juliet´s house. I already saw many pictures from people travelling in Europe from this place. It looked attractive. In addition, I like famous musical Romeo and Juliet. I hoped to see a big balcony with story about the lovers and romantic atmosphere.

Unfortunately, the opposite was true. When we got there we found out the place was quite disgusting because there were chewing gums everywhere on the wall. Although I liked the wall full of hearts. In addition, we saw famous balcony from Juliet and Romeo. The entrance was quite expensive as well. That´s the reason why we did not go inside. Moreover, the place was overcrowded. In Verona there is also Arc de Triomphe as everywhere – Barcelona, Paris and so on.

Finally we decided to go inside some sight and it was the tower in the city centre. It cost 5 euro for students. We climbed up the stairs that were longer than we expected. We were complaining a lot. I like these kinds of attraction where you can climb and after you can see the view of whole city. We took few pictures there.

I would say that Verona is quite small and half of the day is really enough for visiting.

After this walking morning we went to the restaurant to have a lunch. I could not wait having amazing Italian food. We went to the restaurant in the main square so we expected having something great. It was totally the other way around. Mara chose gnocchi, I had pizza Quattro Formaggi, Lucy had spaghetti and Matej was the only one who was happy with his food because he chose Tagliette with big shrimps.

I was so disappointed! I was looking forward to having Italian food so much and the first pizza I had was worse than average one in the Czech Republic. Edges of the pizza were burnt and the taste was not exceptional at all. Moreover, we paid quite a lot because we were obliged to pay 2 euros each as a tip even though we were not satisfied. In the end I had lunch for 15 euros and I did not even like it. Mara had really small portion of gnocchi. Only Matej liked his food because of shrimps. Maybe that´s the reason why we cooked a lot following days because we were not excited about this restaurant. Actually we already decided to have low-cost trip in the beginning because I already had high expenses in France and everybody had a lot of plans after Italy. Therefore we already did a big shopping in Plzen. It can seem funny but this day Lucy managed to get up earlier and she prepared chicken meat with vegetable and we had an amazing salad in the evening.

After Verona we headed to the south of the lake directly to Sirmione. One night before the trip we had barbecue in Hradec and it was such a nice coincidence that my friend had the guide of Verona and Lago di Garda. Therefore, I was a leader during our walking tour in Verona and we found there a lot of useful information. Sirmione was one of the highlighted places. There was stunning water castleon the headland of the island. I loved this small city. It was all near the lake and there were hundreds of small houses with typical small streets, shops and restaurants.

We immediately went to the lake to swim because the weather was just too hot. It was around 30 degrees celsius. We were walking through the streets, we were watching the castle and we found the places where people were swimming.

Unfortunately, Lucy did not feel well so she was just sitting in the shadow. Before this trip a lot of people warned me that the temperature of the water is quite cold and I should be prepared for it. When I checked it on the internet I found out that the water should be around 24 degrees which was bearable because for example the swimming pool where I went one week before the trip had 25 degrees and it was fine for cooling down in hot weather. When I entered the water I felt cold but after few seconds it was all right.

The sun was quite strong so it was pleasant to go to the colder water. In addition, the water was super clear in comparison to the sea for example. We spent two hours near the water and we were walking further a little bit. I liked the place a lot. It reminded me small city Arcachon in France. It was wealthy area and the water was crystal.

It was funny that I never heard about this place before but this year when we went there I found out that bunch of my friends already visited this lake and some of them were even planning on going there this summer. Therefore I was surprised that the same day when we visited Sirmione, two of my classmates from high school were there. We managed to meet them and have an ice-cream with them. They were living close to Sirmione and they used scooters to catch us.

Sirmione was paradise of ice-cream. They had all kinds of ice-cream you could think of in every shop. When I saw the size of one scoop I decided to have only one. It was literally huge. I would compare it to our two or three scoops. I thought that no ice-cream could surprise me after working five hours in café with ice-cream. I was putting ice-cream into the cones when I tried working in the café in Prague and I was allowed to try all of them. Although I was amazed again in Sirmione. In almost every ice-cream shop they had around twenty flavours I could dream of and before we chose we were allowed to try any flavour we wanted! Matej again chose his favourite lemon flavour (I can´t understand it! ) I tried a lot of flavours and I decided to have a scoop of mascarpone. They even offered two types of mascarpone. The prices were higher than normally. It was 3 euro for one scoop. I have to admit the scoop was more than huge but it the price was proportional to the size.

In fact, I could not even enjoy the ice-cream because right after buying it we went to the closest benches to talk and I had to control my ice-cream all the time. You have no idea how difficult can be eating huge ice-cream on the direct sun. It was melting in few seconds. I was eating terribly fast but it did not help because I was dirty like hell. Even though it was only for short moment it was nice to meet my friends from Hradec in Italy. Is not it a big coincidence they went there at the same time? To same city! They looked excited about the place too.

After meeting my friends, we left and we drove to our accommodation – apartment in Desenzano. The apartment was part of the bar and it was nice as the previous one. We also found a nice café close by where we had cappuccino for 1. 5 euro. It was a big difference in comparison to France. This evening we had a salad for dinner. As I said, it can sound unbelievable, although, Lucy woke up earlier and she prepared chicken salad in Verona in the morning for us. In these warm conditions I always have a fancy to eat a salad. Our host told us to go to the closest beach and we went there to take a swim. It was too late for me so I took a rest on my towel and boys went into the water. They said it was not so warm as before because it was after the sunset but we enjoyed chilling there.

We were watching serial Friends that evening – my favourite episode – How Rose went to the tanning salon. I love this one because there is incredibly big amount of funny moments. Actually, during this trip we were watching this serial all the time. When we had few minutes off Matej turned them on. I think it was him who started with it. We went sleep reasonable early to wake up early in the morning because we were supposed to go Gardaland! In fact, it was the day I was looking forward the most!