Following Michelangelo: Verona (7/16/1983)

Saturday, July 16, 1983

We left Casa delle Giovane at about 8:45 and walked to Piazza dell’Erbe. We finally figured where the bus stop was located and I found a place to buy bus tickets, getting five. We caught the #2 bus, which stopped in front of the train station on the other side of the street. By the time we figured it was our stop, the bus had moved on as we struggled through the crowded bus to get off at the next stop. We walked to the train station and checked our bags. I asked at the bus ticket window, how to get to San Zeno. I was told “14” in sort of a Spanish-like accent (quattordithi). We went across the street from the station, and the bus we boarded headed into the city. I thought we were going in the wrong direction, but the bus crossed the river and got itself headed in the right direction! It crossed the river again, and instead of turning left towards San Zeno, it turned right. So we got off at the next stop just outside the city wall. We walked back and then around to the Basilica San Zeno Maggiore. Lots of tour buses out front. San Zeno was built in the Lombard style with a bell tower. The façade had a rose window. The entrance porch was supported by two stone lions. The bronze-plated doors had a barricade across them, but you could get close to see the plates were eroding, and some were missing. Must have been the first bronze door in the world. Also, the bas reliefs were primitive. In the tympanum was a statue of San Zeno.

We had to walk through the cloisters to enter the church from the side. The ceiling was undergoing renovation. It is supposedly keel-shaped, like the upside-down keel of a sailboat. There was an exposed crypt. On the high altar was a triptych of the Madonna and the Saints by Andrea Mantegna. He is supposed to have brought the Renaissance to Verona. The altarpiece was stolen by Napoleon, partly returned, taken again, and finally returned. The lower panels are still in the Louvre, and some in a museum in Tours, France. The marble chancel barrier had statues of Christ and the Apostles. In the chapel to the left of the apse was a large painted statue of Bishop San Zeno (was he black?). (N.B. Yes, he was North African.) I noted the carved Roman capitals on the columns in the nave. We left and sat on a fence to eat a breakfast of an orange and leftover panforte from Siena. A junkman in a horse-drawn wagon shakily played on his trumpet. We walked along the river to Castelvecchio and had a good view of the Ponte/Bridge Scaligeri with its Ghibelline battlements (v-notched). The bridge was rebuilt after being destroyed by the Germans in WWII.

Scaligeri Bridge from Castelvecchio

We entered Castelvecchio, the castle built by Cangrande II, and later used as a barracks by Napoleon. We turned right to buy the 2,000 ITL/$1.30 tickets.

Castelvecchio ticket

We passed through a gallery of Veronese statues and carvings. We then walked out under the Scaligeri Bridge, up some stairs, across a small bridge, and upon entering another building we were greeted by the ticket collector. We saw frescoes taken from around Verona, and lots of art, including Pisanello’s Madonna with the Quail, a Gentile Bellini Madonna and Child, and a Giovanni Bellini Madonna and Child. There were works by Stefano da Verona, Andrea Mantegna, Francesco Bonsignori, and Vittore Carpaccio. After two stories, we crossed back on a bridge to another building, where just outside there was the original statue from his tomb of the charming and ferocious Cangrande I greets visitors. He had a really silly grin, and even the horse looked silly! We entered a rather new gallery with much bigger canvases; by Francesco Morone, Girolamo dai Libri, and Paolo Veronese. Also paintings by Tiziano Vecellio, Lorenzo Lotto, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and Tintoretto. At the far end, we could look outside down at a reconstructed Roman arch. We walked downstairs and out, deciding to go to the Duomo.

We entered the old town through a Roman gate at Corso Porta Borsari. We worked opur way to the cathedral that stands on the site of a Temple of Minerva. The doorway was Lombard-Romanesque with bas reliefs by Niccolò. The interior had red marble pillars. The first chapel on the right was left lighted as someone explained to a group, so we took advantage to admire the Assumption altarpiece by Tiziano. The chancel was enclosed in a semi-circular marble balustrade. The cloisters were closed today. We exited through a Romanesque side door and headed down Via Duomo to the church of Sant’Anastasia, which had just closed at 12:30.

We made our way straight to the Roman amphitheater, the third largest after the Coliseum in Rome. Where is the second largest? (N.B. the Campania Amphitheater in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Italy.) The Verona amphitheater was made largely from pink marble, and has been well-maintained.

Roman amphitheater

We paid 2,000 ITL/$1.30 to enter and take a look around.

Amphitheater ticket

It was set up for an opera.

Stage in the amphitheater

Amphitheater seating

In front of the arena was the Piazza Brà with its cypress trees and cafés. From the Piazza were large gates through the city wall.

We next headed to the tomb of Giulietta/Juliet, getting there through an arbor. We did not see access to the nearby chapel where allegedly Romeo and Juliet were secretly married. We paid 2,000 ITL/$1.30 to go across a small cloister and down into a crypt to see a deteriorating marble bathtub with mildewed flowers in it; Juliet’s tomb.

"Juliet's Tomb" ticket

We walked through a room of tombstones and then headed out. At the ticket desk, we saw a sign pointing to upper rooms, and checked those out. They had fresco fragments. Then we went down to the basement to see huge clay jugs. We bought postcards from a lady who sounded like she spoke through a tracheal stoma.

We took the long hike back to the train station, going through the city wall, and crossing a canal. First we ate lunch at the station’s self-service restaurant. I had pork wiener schnitzel, mostly breading, with mineral water.

Station restaurant lunch receipt

Then we retrieved our bags and went to catch the 14:04 train as shown on the board. But the official schedule had no such train. We had a great time people-watching until the 14:51 train to Milano. The station was busy with trains to and from Monaco! Monaco is Italian for the German city of München/Munich.

We arrived in Milano about 16:35, and walked through the grand Central Station and out across the huge square, right over to Hotel New York. I asked about a room and was told it would be 60,000 ITL/$39. We went ahead and took it. Another man took our bags and key, and ushered us into the elevator. He commented in Italian that we must be English because Marsha was so tall. He let us into the room, and Marsha gave him 1,000 ITL/65 cent bill. The man reached into his pocket to pull out a handful of change. Change for the tip? No, he had several foreign coins and wanted to change them for lire. He had no Swiss or U.S. coins, so we had to tell him, “Sorry!” Marsha noted that when I spoke Italian I used my hands!

The room was newly decorated with twin beds and had a full bath. It had a refrigerator and we had ourselves a cold drink. There was also a radio, but it had mostly classical music stations. We freshened up, then went to the front desk to ask for a map of Milano. They had this pitiful little map on which he circled the main sights.

We went out to the Metro and bought 8 tickets for 500 ITL/33 cents.

Milano Metro ticket

We weren’t sure as to where to go, so just took the first flight of stairs in time to catch a Metro train going south. We got off at Cadorna and transferred to the other line to go up to the Duomo. My notes on Milano were in advertently dropped in the San Lorenzo in Florence, and an usher snatched them up and crumpled them. I only realized that those were my notes when I found they were missing. But our sightseeing in Milano will only be basic anyway.

We came out of the Metro to see the magnificent white marble Gothic cathedral full of belfries, gables, pinnacles, and statues.

Milano Duomo/Cathedral

We entered through one of the several bronze doors to see stained glass windows galore. The ones in the façade were like paintings. Most were filled with small pictures. One on the left side was unusual with intense motion (archangels driving out Lucifer? fight between good and evil?). The front of the church and the transept were completely closed off, so we missed the tomb inspired by Michelangelo, or the curious statue of St Bartholomeo who was flayed alive, and now carries his skin over his shoulder. We were able to walk around to see the three bay windows of the apse.

Back out in Piazza del Duomo, we passed the modern plastic stalls that sold books. The Rinascente department store was still open, so we entered, and oh, it was air-conditioned! We looked for and found the big hair clips we have seen girls wearing all over Italy. We each bought a couple. Next we walked through the beautiful and large Galleria, an enclosed shopping arcade. Then the Piazza della Scala with the statue of Leonardo da Vinci.

Statue of Leonardo da Vinci

The façade of La Scala, the opera theater, was under scaffolding. We walked down Via Manzoni a couple blocks in search of the Motta chocolate shop, but only found a shell of a building. So we returned to the Galleria and decided to eat in a glass-enclosed café. It was the Downtown Restaurant connected to the Motta shops. We sat next to the menu that people outside stopped and studied. We had mineral water, and Marsha had a beer that was actually cold this time. She had a Greek rice salad, and I had a California salad (greens, but no lettuce, with meat and eggs and interesting little green tomatoes). Then Marsha had paella and I had a beefsteak pie, roast beef in a pastry crust. It was cold but great! We have had the best beef in Italy! Marsha finished with a cappuccino. We people-watched. A couple of men were arm in arm, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything here. Marsha saw lots of good-looking guys going her way. I saw one! A couple fattish ugly men walked my way, and Marsha said their heads turned as they passed. Then they turned around and walked past us again, then u-turned to pass yet once more. It was another splurge meal for us at 50, 500 ITL/$33.

Downtown Restaurant dinner bill

 We walked through the Motta shop to see the candy, the bar, and the delicatessen, but there was no ice cream. We walked around the back of the cathedral, around the other side of the square, and beyond the Times Square-like neon-lighted buildings to Piazza Mercanti, where there was a Burghy fast-food restaurant. Otherwise the square was dead. On the other side of the scaffolded building we found the Palazzo dei Guireconsulti/of Jurisconsults, with a statue on the façade of St Ambrose teaching. Across from it was the Loggia degli Osii of black and white marble with a balcony from which penal sentences were read, and there were statues of saints. To the right was the Baroque palace of the Palatine schools, with an interesting entrance. There were statues of the poet Ausonius and St Augustine. We returned to the Piazza del Duomo, and went to a gelateria in the Galleria. Marsha got a cone, and I got a cup. We wandered as we ate, and found a Milano info center. We asked if they had a map of the city. No! We watched a symphony on four TVs in a window. Back to the Metro station to catch a train going north, changing at Loretto to go to the Central Station, thus having made a big circle on the Metro! We walked to the hotel to turn in. It was very hot, and we both turned around in our beds so that our heads were closer to the window.