A Very Odd Day

We left Florence today. I'm not sure that I have the energy to go through the details, but it started with a 15 minute walk to the car rental office, followed by a half hour wait for the car, followed by 20 minutes of futile attempts to bring the car close to the apartment ending in parking in a lot (most of Florence center is off-limits to cars unless you either live there or park in a lot where they can get you removed from the police records of violating the ban) to walking 10 minutes home to taking a taxi with all the luggage (and Ronnie, of course) to the parking lot and FINALLY getting out of town. All told, 2 hours.

Then we drove for about 2 1/2 hours to Verona. We're staying in a nice but nondescript hotel from which we walked through the ancient wall and entered the most beautiful city I've ever seen in my life. I completely lack the words to describe it and I doubt my pictures do it justice, but the sidewalks are alternating pink and white marble, every block you glance down has some bit of eye candy, the shops are cute, every building has visual interest ranging from mere attractiveness to spectacular, the balconies overflowing with flowers, the largest square is dominated by a huge Roman amphitheater where they do opera all summer (we're seeing Carmen tomorrow) and the other main square is just drop-dead gorgeous. We walked all afternoon and I was shaking my head the entire time. Pictures later.