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Scratching the surface in Verona, Venice and Padua

Scratching the surface in Verona, Venice and Padua

Old May 26th, 2008, 01:12 AM
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Scratching the surface in Verona, Venice and Padua

Just came back from a four-day visit of Verona, Venice and Padua.

Background:

Travellers: A group of 18 Swiss adults between 30 and 77 years old. Most members of the group know each other and have travelled with each other before.

Dates: May 22 – May 25 (Thurs. – Fri)

Itinerary:
Day 1: Travel to Verona from Arth-Goldau by train. (Travel time: 5 hours)
Stay 3 nights at Hotel Mastino.
- Eat at Trattoria Giulietta e Romeo
- 2 hour guided tour of Verona
- Eat at Trattoria All'Isolo

Day 2: Travel to Venice by train from Verona (Travel time: 1hour 15 min.)
- Get vaporetto day tickets
- 2 hour guided tour of Venice
- Eat at Corte del Remer

Day 3: Visit Padua from Verona and have a wine tasting and evening meal at Mazzi Winery near Negrar outside of Verona

Day 4: Stay in Verona. Take train back to Arth-Goldau
- Visit arena and climb the city tower

More to come.
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Old May 26th, 2008, 03:26 AM
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Day 1: Verona

Arth-Goldau – Milan: Train times: 7.50 -10.47. Cisalpino is notorious for it’s rocking motion. One person felt queezy because of this and we were all glad to get off in Milan. The windows aren’t as large as in other trains. Cisalpino is in the process of replacing the old wagons with non-rocking wagons. A very smart move. We saw no customs officers in our wagon.

Milan – Verona: Train times: 11.05 – 12.40. After a ten-minute delay in Milan, we got on our Inter City train and found our reserved seats. It was a smooth and uneventful ride to Verona.

Hotel Mastino: Corso Porta Nuova 16, website: www.hotelmastino.it
15 min walking distance from the train station.
A *** hotel in a good location for people planning on using the train a lot or wanting to be near the arena. A basic hotel that does have a few noisy rooms. If you are noise sensitive, request a quiet room. This will not guarantee you’ll get a quiet room though so have a quick inspection of your room and then ask for a new one if you’re not satisfied. Breakfast was good and the reception staff was mostly friendly. Chris, the bookkeeper speaks perfect English.

Lunch at: Trattoria Giulietta e Romeo
Address: Corso S. Anastasia, 27 Tel 045 8009177 (10 min. walking distance from our hotel)
Location: http://www.cercaristoranti.com/pagina.cfm?id=593 /

A wonderful inexpensive restaurant that has the quickest service we’ve ever experienced. Huge portions. Highly recommended. Located near Piazza Erbe

German guided tour of Verona: We were disappointed with our tour guide. His explanations were all monotone and without feeling. He even presented some wrong information. However, we did see many highlights of old city and got a feeling for the city.

Dinner at: Trattoria All'Isolo Piazza Isolo, 5, Tel.: 045 594291
Location: http://www.cercaristoranti.com/pagina.cfm?id=1140/

Recommended by two different locals, we were served very traditional dishes in the restaurant full of Italians. The pasta was home-made and out of this world. The second course dishes consisted of horse meat stew, polenta and cod fish. We were adventurous and open-minded but realised cod fish is an acquired taste and most left it on their plates. An inexpensive and authentic restaurant. Recommended for those who want to try local dishes.
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Old May 26th, 2008, 03:35 AM
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Day 2: Venice

Vaporetto:
We took the morning train from Verona to Venice. We stood in a long line at the ticket booth in Venice to get our 12 hour day fare vaporetto tickets. Price Euro 14.00. Single fare tickets are Euro 6.50. The ticket booth is right outside the train station along the canal. We wanted to take the vaporetto that went along the grand canal, but were confused as to which one it was. Make sure you look at the map above the door which gives a list of stops. Use a map to help you find these stops and that will tell you the direction the vaporetto is taking.

We got off at San Marco’s. Thousands of tourists were there. I felt like Venice was the 52 State of the US. Americans everywhere. You hear them before you see them. It made me a bit homesick for the States.

Tour Guide: Cristina Taddeo website: www.guidedtoursinvenice.com
We met our tour guide at the Doge’s Palace exit (Porta della Carte) a meeting place for many tours. Christina, a beautiful born and bred Venetian, speaks 4 languages and gave us a wonderful tour of Venice. We had a tour of San Marco church and then she took us to the Rialto bridge, the local market. She even showed us how to use the gondola ferries (50 cents). Along the way she told us about specific buildings and the local life in Venice. She does tours in English, French and German and even has a holiday apartment she rents out for 3+ nights. Highly recommended.

Tidbits:
Wealthy Venetian women used to dye their hair blond using horse urine. They’d sit on the balcony, wet their hair with urine and dry it in the sun.

Groups of 16+ people who arrive in Venice by bus or ship are required to pay a 360 Euro entrance fee per group.

Lunch at Corte del Remer, Mr. Emilio 0039 349 3365168
picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fioredluna/2474509168/

Recommended by Cristina, this was a lovely but well hidden restaurant not too far from the Rialto bridge in San Polo. For 25 Euros, we had pasta as our first course and then a delicious buffet of hot and cold anti-pasta for our second course. The food was sensational. We then had cookies and prosecco for dessert. House wine (wonderful) and water was included. Highly recommended.

Our group then split up. A few of us wandered the streets of Santa Croce and we eventually found a pleasant campo with few tourists and many locals. We ordered Coretto Grappa for 2 Euros each. The old woman was very generous with the grappa. Although the price was sensational, the grappa wasn’t. But who’s going to complain at that price?

We eventually headed back to San Marco, had an expensive beer along the Canale di San Marco, watched a wedding party and just enjoyed Venice. A warning to those on a tight schedule in Venice, make sure you know how to use a map and the vaporettos to get back to your cruise ship. We met some Americans who were a bit paniky about getting to their cruise ship on time and were confused on which vaporetto to take.

We then took the train back to Verona.
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Old May 26th, 2008, 03:46 AM
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Hi schuler

The second course dishes consisted of horse meat stew, polenta and cod fish. We were adventurous and open-minded but realised cod fish is an acquired taste and most left it on their plates.>>

LOL - it was the COD you all left???

i like the report - it's nice to read about it warts and all.

i agree about how confusing the vaporetti can be - if you're there more than a few days, it gets a lot easier, but of course that didn't apply to you.

looking forward to more,

regards, ann
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Old May 26th, 2008, 04:29 AM
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Hi Ann, Thanks for your response. Except for the vegetarian and myself, all of the Swiss in our group enjoyed the horse meat. They didn't find it unusual at all. I had ordered something because I just couldn't swallow the idea of eating a horse.

We finally figured out the vaporetto schedules by the end of the day and all vowed to return to lovely Venice sometime in the future.
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Old May 26th, 2008, 04:29 AM
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Day 3: Padua and Mazzi Winery outside of Verona.

This was supposed to be the group’s facultative day but everyone decided to go to Padua so off we went by train.

Padua: We spent about 5 hours walking around Padua, enjoying the old town and the St. Antonius church. Because we didn’t have a tour guide or did a lot of research, I felt we didn’t really didn’t get the full feeling of this historical university town. If we were to go again, I’d definitely organise a tour guide to help us understand the city and it’s history more. Padua has a wonderful market in Piazza Erbe with fresh fruit and vegetables.

Mazzi Winery: Roberto Mazzi: Via Crosseta, 8, San Peretto +39 045 8266150
http://www.robertomazzi.it/ 35 Euros for a four-course meal, four different wines, limocello and water. Open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Reservations a must.

A tip from Dave, the Trip Advisor expert for Verona.

Located in San Peretto near Negrar, I was really stumped on how to organise inexpensive transportation for our group to this winery. After much research, I found a local bus that took us to Negrar for 2.30 Euros and then we walked 1 km to the winery. The bus driver showed us a dirt path that took us through a vineyard, down a gravel road and into the small village of San Peretto. It was a warm evening and we were walking uphill. I was nervous about what was in store for us. Without getting lost once, we found the charming winery. Very clean, quaint and Italian, we were greeted by the good-looking son named Antonio. He gave us a short tour of his wine cellar and told us they sell wine through a wine distributor near our area in Switzerland.

The house is old and furnished with antiques. The dining room holds about 50 people. Our group was the largest and loudest. Dave, the B&B owner from Verona, brought two Australian guests and met us for dinner. We had lovely, often hysterically funny conversations over exquisite local dishes and different wines. The Australians were easy-going and were wonderfully humorous. At midnight, taxis were called (Euro 30+ for 4 people) and we all went home feeling slightly tipsy and aching from all the food and laughter. It was a wonderful, memorable evening. Thanks again to Dave for recommending Mazzi Winery. It was perfect!
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Old May 27th, 2008, 12:04 AM
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Day 4: Verona

Today we just hung around Verona until it was time to leave.

Here are some highlights from Verona:

Piazza Bra: Bra means "wide" and this is certainly a large piazza next to the arena. With it's cafes, it makes a nice stop before entering the narrow streets of Verona’s old city

Arena: Amazing. We were there early Sunday morning and had it to ourselves. Incredible architecture, beautifully built and lovely acoustics. We spent over an hour just taking in the history and listening to the church bells. The stage for the upcoming opera was magnificent to see as well.

Via Mazzini: The pedestrian zone shopping mile of Verona that connects Piazza della Erbe and Piazza Bra.

Julia’s House: Took a quick peek into the courtyard to see the fake balcony and the “Julia” statue. Tourists were busy holding and rubbing the golden breast.

Piazza della Erbe: The heart of Verona. A beautiful square with framed with old buildings (some with paintings). A wonderful place to be day or night. We found the piazza full of people drinking and socializing on a late Friday night.

Piazza dei Signora: Another beautiful piazza. Beautiful because of it's peacefulness (morning and night) and amazing architecture. The Roman road can be seen here too.

Torre dei Lamberti: We took the lift to the top of this tower for an amazing view of the city. Bring a map since there aren't any on top to show you the sights.

Church Maria of Organa: A magical church because we got an unexpected tour of the wooden parquetry found in the choir and sacristy. Amazing work and an amazing tourguide (an older Italian gentlemen who oversees the church.) He blows out the candles before he locks the church and then lights them again upon his return because of the valuable wooden art.

Via Cappello Leoni and Via Leonicino:
A gap in this small piazza shows the original Roman road that went through Verona. Nearby, in front of some ruins, a young man was murdered on May 1. Letters of friends and relatives were taped at the sight, portraying their anger, shame and frustration of the 5 murderers.

Davide: Davide, a very nice Tripadvisor forum expert for Verona and B&B owner in Verona, gave me some excellent tips. We met up at the Mazzi Winery along with two of his guests and had an incredible evening together. Website: http://www.alquadrifoglio.it/

Good information can be found on Verona.com. You can download their city guide in English and German. An excellent guide to use during your stay in Verona.
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Old May 27th, 2008, 03:46 AM
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Venice: top three lovely things to do:

1. Get a back massage while going up the tower in San Marco's square. Then get the same massage going down... for free!

2. Kiss the lovely elderly gentleman (owner?) 3 times on the cheek at the above restaurant in Venice.

3. Drink Coretto Grappa for 2 Euros each at a small cafe off the beaten path campo in Santa Croce.
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Old May 27th, 2008, 03:56 AM
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Enjoyed your report, schuler, thanks. Particularly glad you hear you liked Padua as we'll be there in a few weeks. The winery dinner sounds great - the bus you got was from Verona, was it ?
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Old May 27th, 2008, 04:33 AM
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Hi Caroline,

Thanks for your post. I'm not sure if anybody actually reads this stuff or not.

We got the bus to Negrar from the train station. We could have got on right before Piazza Bra. Unfortunately, busses do not run late at night so we took a taxi back. Cost: Euro 30
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Old May 27th, 2008, 04:33 AM
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The train station at Verona.
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