Pictures from Lake Guarda/Venice/ Verona

Hello!

Here are the captions for the new slide show I put up from Lake Garda, Venice and Verona! I hope you enjoy them!

Lake Garda:
1. We took a speedboat out for about 20 minutes (it would have been longer but it started to rain) to get a better look at Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy. You can see our cute old captain in the hat and red vest! He was really cute!
2. Close up of us in the boat! (Thanks Anna for these two pictures!)
3. The beautiful Scaliger Castle from the 13th Century, right on the water. It was probably the coolest castle I've seen yet!

Venice:
1. View of Venice from the Grand Canal
2. View of Venice from the Grand Canal
3. View of Venice from the Grand Canal- Here you see the Bell Tower and Duomo from St. Marks Square in the background!
4. Close up of the bell tower and the Greek Church.
5. Beautiful Waterway in Venice- Venice is made up of 118 Islands, 166 canals and 400 Bridges connecting them. Our tour guide said every time you cross a bridge you are leaving behind an island.
6. This is a close up a crest you see on all of the Gondola's in Venice. The Top thick part represents a governor’s hat- to show power, the 6 prongs coming off of it represent the six districts in Venice and the silver stem that runs down the bottom of the gondola represents the Grand Canal.
7. The Bridge of Sighs- it connects the courthouse and the prison and as the prisoners were taken across to the prison it is said they would sigh as they caught the last glimpse of their sweet Venice. Very sad. Very Poetic.
8. St. Mark's Basilica in St. Marks Square
9. The Bell tower in St. Marks Square
10. The sweet Clock tower in St. Marks Square. The iron guys at the top actually swing their hammers to ring the bell- way cool.
11. The Scala Contarini del Bovolo- a staircase designed to look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa- but they messed up because it’s not leaning! :) Ironic.
12. Rialto Bridge- Beautiful! Almost as cool as the Ponte Vecchio in Florence-- Almost but not quite!
13. Gondola Traffic Jam...haha. Which is why I didn't ride one- too touristy, to packed. blah.
14. Me with a pretty waterway
15. Anna, Me and Emma drinking Bellini's the drink Venice is known for! It's Champagne and Grapefruit Juice--yum!
16. Hooray for Venetian Masks!!

Verona:
1. St. Peter's Hill- the oldest roman building in Verona. Originally it was meant to defend the city but now it hosts a huge jazz festival!
2. This is a grave of a guy called Cane Grande...yes that translates to Big Dog. I don’t know about you, but that sounds slightly Mafioso to me! Which makes sense because he was kind of a bully. The reason his grave is above the door instead of on the ground like all of the other sarcophagi is because he wanted to remind people that he was "above them in life, and is above them in death." He was a real nice guy....
3. A statue of Dante the famous author. He fled to Verona when Florence kicked him out because of his controversial ideas, so he finished parts 2 and 3 of his divine comedy in Verona.
4. Juliet's Balcony- the reason Verona is the 4th most visited city in Italy. To bad it’s fake. Basically it’s a sarcophagus they glued to the side of a wall. People can't get enough of it though. (Read the bottom note B/c I have some fun facts about Romeo and Juliet!)
5. This is statue of "Juliet"- if you notice that a certain part of Juliet is exceptionally shiny its because there's a legend that says if you touch said shiny part you will have luck in love. I thought that was a little too weird so I stuck with a picture.
6. the Arena of Verona- basically the little sister of the Colosseum. It was used for the same purpose as the Colosseum for years and years but now it hosts an entire year of theatrical and opera events like Aida.
7. A beautiful piazza in Verona.

Valpollicella:
1. the view of this little wine town outside of Verona, we visited it for a wine tasting
2. Vineyards
3. Soon to be vineyard
4. Cute church near the wine cellars.
5. Vineyards
6. Anna and Me in the Vineyard
7. Me in front of a HUGE wine cask!

My New Hair cut! Ever since I first saw the movie Roman Holiday where Audrey Hepburn gets her hair cut off while in Italy it has been my goal to get my hair cut in Italy. Check Check!

Small note about Romeo and Juliet:
1. While Romeo and Juliet never existed there was in fact a family called the Capulets and a family called the Montague’s- and their houses are the ones pinpointed as "Romeo and Juliet’s" houses.
2. The two families did hate each other. The Montague’s (Romeo's family) were Imperialists and the Capulets (Juliet's Family) were Papalists. These two different groups hated each other during the time of the legend.
3. Turns out Shakespeare's story is actually an English version of a French translation of an Italian legend. The reason Shakespeare gets all the glory is because he was the only one who wrote an ingenious and beautiful play out of it! Bravo Shakespeare!

And that's all the fun pictures and fun facts I've got for ya from those three places. I'll be writing again soon!

Love,
Mary Kay