Verona

Well, I left France just as I had gotten in the habit of speaking my Franglish to everyone, and was even doing that sing-song inflection they do.

Annecy is beautiful, and I had a lot of fun there. And saw some great animation and met some fascinating people. 

I decided to skip Milan and go to Verona before arriving in Venice. So I booked a B&B on hotels.com a couple days ago, and then noticed that the train I was taking didn't arrive until pretty late, so had to make arrangements with the owner.

(The train through the mountains was absolutely gorgeous - it's difficult to take pictures from a moving train, so I don't have as many as I would have liked.)

Got to Verona at 22:45 and texted the woman from the b&b - she met me here, arriving just after the taxi dropped me off. (Verona - hot, and bustlingly busy on a Saturday night) She took me upstairs, showed me around, gave me keys, and left. I'm the only guest, so it's like having a lovely 3-bedroom apartment all to myself. Terracielo - it's totally charming and a great location, and cheap to boot. If I ever return, I'll definitely stay here again.

----- later in the day -----

Well, there's some sort of Verona festival going on this weekend. Center of town is packed all day with celebrants and marathon runners and tourists and so forth. Not the sleepy Sunday I was somehow imagining.

Found my way to the Castelvecchio, which was amazing. Part medieval castle, part art museum, as you move through the place you climb higher and higher and are able to see more of the surrounding city, but also the art moves from ancient to medieval to rennaisance to modern. It was only 6 euros to get in, and I was there for at least a couple hours. 

Then I meandered off to find lunch (which was delicious and extravagant), at this restaurant that happened to be under a bunch of beams where the omnipresent swallows were nesting. I counted about 7 active nests that I could see, but I think there were more on the opposite side of the beams from where I was. The nest that was closest to me had 4 little heads in it - most had 2 or 3, but I think one in the opposite corner had 4 as well. And then, while I was eating my seafood pasta, they fledged. Some of the restaurant staff and some pedestrians were really engaged in the drama and stopped to watch as well. It was delightful, also probably assisted by my full belly and 3 glasses of wine. 

Oh wait, before lunch I went to Juliet's balcony, because you gotta.

After lunch I went to the cathedral of Anastasia - beautiful,of course. Italian gothic, intricate and lovely. Then I went back to the hotel to rest and regroup, and ended up sleeping a bit. 

Went back out and wandered into the Giardino Giusti, which, unlike every other thing I had seen, was utterly empty. I wandered quietly all over the garden, up a spiral staircase that appeared to be built over a tomb/chapel (but you can't get into it), came back down and disturbed a mother cat with her kittens, couldn't solve the little labrinth, couldn't get the birds to eat the bread I had with me, and then discovered that there was life in the fountains. Enormous fish and a bunch of turtles, all of whom readily at my bread.

I noticed a couple more cats on my way out, and noticed that there were little dishes scattered around. Only one of the cats would have anything to do with me, though - a big black tom with nicks in his ears, who came up and accepted some petting quite readily until he saw the attendant/guard guy stirring in his room, and then he went over to the door to sit by his dish and wait.

Somehow I find it utterly charming that this man sits in that little room all day, selling tickets to a beautiful garden almost nobody goes to, and feeds the cats without really domesticating them. I'm jealous.