We were up quite early this morning as the latest check out time was 10:00am. We also thought it might give us a head start with the traffic as we left Riva Del Garda.

How wrong we were; we were no sooner leaving Riva before the traffic had built up and came to a virtual standstill. This was going up the roads towards the mountains in the east. It was stop-start and hill starts all the way, not even getting out of second gear. Despite this, the scenery was still stunning.

We must have travelled ten miles or so before the traffic cleared and this happened not long before getting onto the motorway. I didn’t like driving on this road either. It was two lanes all the way, a bit like parts of the M18, with loads of HGVs hogging the inside lane.

It was ok getting into Verona itself once we had left the motorway. However, trying to find the car rental place at the train station was a nightmare. Parts of the station entrance had been blocked off due to roadworks and it was impossible to get to the rental office. There were no signs anywhere!! I must have driven round the same route three times trying to find it. I even thought I was driving like a crazy local in the end, in an attempt to get to where we needed to be. Eventually we stopped and JC asked a local police officer. Despite not speaking much English, he showed us where to go.

After a taxi transfer from the car rental at the station, we arrived at Hotel Touring within ten minutes. This is in the heart of the Centro Storico, the old town historical centre of Verona.

https://www.hoteltouringverona.com/en/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIy8XulcHBgAMVVQmLCh0dmgiNEAAYASAAEgIrr_D_BwE

We were able to check in even though it was before the advertised time. We dropped our bags off in the room before going out to get something to eat.

We didn’t get far before we found Marinato restaurant. I wanted a pizza so this was a great place to be. You could choose from different types of dough, so I decided to go for black dough. This was dough made from the usual flour, with added natural charcoal from coconut shells.

http://www.marinato.it

I had chosen my topping, diavola, which went very well with the black dough. Probably one of the best pizzas I’d had.

Once we’d eaten, we went for a walk to the amphitheater which was less than five minutes walk from the Marinato. It is positioned on the edge of the Piazza Bra, a really big square with lots of restaurants. It was really hot here so we stopped off for a drink, before going back to the hotel.

https://www.italyguides.it/en/veneto/verona/piazza-bra

We had a bit of a siesta before getting ready to go out. It was still hot when we left the hotel, but soon found a shaded square, the Piazza Ebre. Meaning Herbs Square, this was the original Roman forum. Today, it is a bustling market area surrounded by restaurants. Remains of the original forum are underneath the existing paved areas but aren’t accessible at the moment due to restoration work taking place.

Here, we found the restaurant Caffé Fillipini. This was a typical Italian restaurant that was very busy. I had a salad and then we shared a tiramisu.

http://www.caffefilippini.it/filippini-caffé-brasserie–english.html

As the sun dropped we then went back towards Piazza Bra to see the amphitheater all lit up. There was a performance of Verdi’s Nabucco taking place, so it was very busy.

We wandered about taking pictures of various landmarks such as the Castel Vecchio and the medieval Porta Nuova arches that were the entrance to the old town. They looked fabulous all lit up in the dark.

After a nice glass of Valpolicella ripasso, at the Vittorio Emanuele Ristorante, we headed back to our hotel to catch up on some sleep before our busy day on Friday.

http://www.ristorantevittorioemanuele.com/ristorante-vittorio-emanuele-english.html