The villa’s owner met us at 11 and we said goodbye to Casa Rina and Lake Como soon thereafter. The roads we traveled after leaving Como were almost entirely toll roads. Our first few encounters with the automatic toll collection system were stressful–where to insert the ticket…how much money to insert…where to insert the money? We learned fast and had few problems until we accidentally entered the “telepass” lane instead of the “take a ticket” lane. The impatient Italian driver behind us honked his horn, we waved for him to back up and suddenly the barrier rose and we went through without a ticket. Mistake…the next time we had to pay the toll, there was a person in the lane we chose, he spoke very little, maybe no, English and was quite impatient. He generated a ticket that we really don’t understand and motioned us on. We were careful to choose the correct lane from then on.
We stopped in Verona on our way to Venice. It is purported to be where Romeo and Juliet was set and there are many references to the play, most notably the balcony where the love scene played out. Entering the old city through a huge gate, we (Connie wasn’t feeling well and stayed in the car) headed down the first street we saw to lunch at a small outdoor cafe (across from an ancient theater) and followed lunch by gelato.
We also saw an ancient arena (Roman coliseum) where throughout the summer they will be performing famous operas…sorry we will miss that! The signs to Juliet’s balcony took us through the old town, but we did finally find it.
We drove to the Mestre Train Station and I checked in to the Best Western while Allan, Clay and Charlie went round and round the block trying to find the Hertz parking lot and/or office. We finally returned the car, settled in to our rooms, and are having our final bottle of Amarone wine. Tomorrow we meet the Backroads trip…
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