Day 46 - Verona, Italy

This morning we left Florence for Verona. Along the way, we drove through “motor valley,” a stretch of area that is home to Lamborghini, Ducati, Ferrari, and other high-end Italian car/bike manufacturers. This meant only one thing. We had to stop.

We chose to visit the Ferrari Gallery, which is just outside of Modena. They have many of the old and current Ferrari models on display, as well as engines from each year (which I liked… you can see the tweaks/changes made to their F1 engine every year starting from the mid-1900s, for example). We had a moment of hilarity when Kim got stuck in the F1 simulator (she didn’t know you had to slide your legs all the way under before sitting).


Here’s Kim next to her favorite Ferrari, the 360 Modena.

Here we are in front of a 2002 Enzo (named for the founder of Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari).

Upon arrival in Verona, we had difficulty checking into our B&B. Mainly, no one was there to let us in, which was a little frustrating because we then had to locate a pay phone a few blocks away to try and get in touch with someone to come let us in (they also didn’t speak English, which made coordination difficult). Once we got things resolved and checked in, we headed out for the opera.

The Verona Opera Festival's operas are staged in the city's Arena, a huge coliseum-like outdoor amphitheatre (built in the 1st century AD).

We saw “Tosca,” which follows the basic opera plot line where everyone dies in the end (sorry if I ruined it for you!), but it was good. The amazing thing is that they use no mics or speakers for the performers or orchestra. We were up in the nose-bleed seats, but we could hear everything perfectly.

Additional Thoughts:
- "The Boss": No matter where you go in Italy, you are sure to here Bruce Springsteen playing from somewhere. You can't escape it. Italians love the Boss.

- (Kim) Brian’s Baby: Because it’s been pretty hot, we’ve been carrying bottles of water with us everywhere. I prefer to carry a 0.5L bottle because it fits in my purse, but Brian needs more, so he usually ends up buying a 1.5L bottle (we try to stock up at grocery stores when we have a car). The problem is these big bottles are too heavy to just hold by the top with your fingers, and they certainly don’t fit in any pocket, so Brian ends up cradling it in his arm. Therefore we’ve taken to calling his bottle his baby. The funny part is that occasionally Brian puts down his bottle and accidentally leaves it somewhere. Today, as we were leaving the Ferrari museum, a look of panic came over Brian’s face, he gasped, and he yelled, “Where’s my baby?!” (I wonder what the people around us thought.) He ran back into the museum and found his baby in the men’s bathroom. Brian proudly reminds me that he’s only completely lost his baby once. I don’t know what this bodes for fatherhood.