Sept 13th - Sept 16th
On the morning of Sept 13th we woke up and packed up our things from the campsite at Bellavista on Lago di Garda and drove towards Verona.
The first thing we did was visit the Sealife Aquarium at Gardaland. Gardaland is a huge funpark with tonnes of rides, it had many sections but we decided to go to the aquarium. The aquarium was larger than the one we visited in Split. It had lots of new fish and animals that I had never seen before. They had a underwater tunnel that you could see the sharks swim over you, just like in Toronto.
There was a questionnaire that we all filled in as we went around. It was full of 9 questions that we had to answer the questions correctly to get a prize at the end. the answers were all in the write-ups along the route that we followed.
My favourite exhibit was the octopus. This octopus was really big and he move around a lot. He kept changing colour and he had so many sticky suction cups on each tentacle and it was neat to see how they helped him move around.
Liam's favourite was the seahorses. They had a whole tank of them and we learned all about how seahorses need sea grass to live and raise their young and that they are very affected by the pollution in the oceans.
Brendan's favourite was the lionfish. They were so beautiful and had so many beautiful fins. It was so amazing to see all of the different species.
We had a great time at the aquarium and then we headed into the city of Verona. Verona is a beautiful city on the Adige river with many ancient buildings . We took the next two days and wandered through the city to see all of the amazing sites that the city of Verona had to offer.
We learned about the very sad story of Romeo and Juliette and we were able to go and see Juliette's house. Outside of her house is a statue of her and above you can see her balcony. I really want to go and see the play now!
We also the Castelvecchio and we were able to walk across the Ponte di castlevecchio. It is a walking bridge across the river and one of the oldest bridges in Verona.
We walked to the Lapidary Museum Maffeiano and were able to see an incredible collection of early Roman and Veronese ancient artifacts. Most were Funeral Stele (gravestones) or urns. They all told interesting stories about life so long ago.
We also visited the beautiful Roman Arena. It is an original Roman Colosseum, like the one in Rome, but this one was built earlier and is still in use today as a place where outdoor operas and music concerts are held. We were able to get in in the morning and tour around before the afternoon shows started.
The original use of the Arena was as a spot to hold competitions between Gladiators and between the fighters and wild animals. There was originally three layers to the arena and there is only two now as the third was taken down only a few hundred years after it was built by the Romans them selves. They used the stone from the third level to build a stone wall around the town to protect from the Germanic Horde in the 4th century. You can see the only remaining piece of the third level in the picture below.
We were so excited, because when we were walking around we noticed that the stone that all of the steps were made out of had incredible fossils. They were so beautiful!
We are staying in a campsite called Camping Castel San Pietro. It is located in the old fort of San Pietro and is the the craziest and most interesting campsite we have ever stayed at. We are camping inside the walls of the old fort. This hill was the site of a Roman fort, but was rebuilt in the 1300's as a huge fort to protect the city of Verona. Below is a view from the river up to the Castle San Pietro and then the next one is of my Dad and the boys at the top looking down.
Here are some pictures of our campsite, inside the walls of the old fort. There are grapes growing all over, and every night we get to hear the sound of the city. Each night we have gone to sleep with music playing. One night we were treated to a really cool thing! We heard a little sound crawling around in the bushes! We were able to get a picture of him and it turns out he is a hedgehog!
Verona has been such a fun city to explore! and this weekend we lucked out and have been treated to a festival. It is the Tocati festival. It is the festival of games.
All over the city there are stations set up for kids and adults to try out traditional and modern games. Me and the boys tried out lots of them and we watched a bunch more!
Then after trying out so many games we stopped for lunch at the festival. It was so amazing, we had fresh pizza, Meat and cheese plate and roasted chicken! It was all soooooo good!!
Finally we stopped into see a puppet display and they were putting on puppet shows! It was so popular that we couldn't get close enough to see the show, but we were able to walk around and see all of the puppets on display.
And of course we always made time for Gelato!!
We decided to head out one more time tonight before we leave Verona in the morning and we were able to play a few more awesome games! Liam, Brendan and I did all sorts of different types of bowling, we did tug of war, barrel rolling, ring toss, and so many other fun things!
Prego Verona!
Love Tia and Mari
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