Verona, You are a Beauty!

Verona at sunset

View from a bridge near our apartment

Our short stay in Verona meant meeting up with an old friend, Fathi, and his wife (whom we had not met) for a day of biking and wine-tasting. As we pulled into this famous and old city, it was clear that there was something special about it. Later, I learned there is a lot of wealth here, which partly explains its immaculate and beautifully-lit streets, omnipresent live music, and feeling of great life and bounty.

Our bike touring guide, "Mike"

It was great to see Fathi after all of these years, and meeting his wife, Teresa, was a treat. There was an immediate chemistry within our group, and it made for a wonderfully enjoyable day in the countryside. "Mike", our tour guide, was a lot of fun, too.

As Joanne mentioned, narrow roads and traffic made some of the biking quite perilous (well, that's stretching it a bit). We stopped at one town to visit a bar, but it was closed, so we took a few pics and moved on. Two in our group had chains derail on their bikes, and we were joking about this, since our guide had said these are "the best bikes!" We stopped for lunch a little later in a small country town, which was a blast (and very tasty).

Teresa enjoys as Fathi focuses

Fathi offers me a grape

As Joanne said, we passed many grape vines along our route. Fathi and I stopped to do some more serious grape tasting, and, thankfully, no angry vintners wielding shotguns appeared!


The winery we visited was awesome, and we took our time chatting and tasting. The ride back was lots of fun, as well, with Fathi "blocking traffic" for us at times. Verona is lit up spectacularly at night, and an old colosseum in one of the central squares is now a music venue. The night air was filled with energy. We just loved this town.

The next day, we said goodbye to Fathi and Teresa, but somehow (see Joanne's post) we knew we might see Fathi again soon. As it turned out we did, in Nice!

Teresa and Joanne ham it up

I believe we will return to Verona someday. It just had that certain feeling that is hard to describe.

Joanne in one of Verona's squares