Travel update IX – San Marino & Verona, Italy

(Photos by © Brandon Elijah Scott / Eye & Pen)

Before I started traveling heavily, I was obsessed with travel photography. I spent hours upon hours scouring the internet looking for the next amazing thing that I had yet to see before. After awhile, I began saving some of my favorites in a little album on my phone – a sort of dream collection. One of the more outstanding photos that I saved was from the cliff-tops of the Republic of San Marino – a lonely mountain cliff in Italy, with its own country status. So, needless to say, it’s been on my ‘must see travel’ list for ages. When I was looking at a map, routing my next move after Morocco, I noticed that San Marino was very close to where I would be in Rimini and Cesenatico, so I had to plan a stop there!

I took the bus from outside Rimini train station to San Marino – it took about an hour, going through little hilly towns and finally winding its way up to the bus parking lot. I started walking upwards, wandering all the while along the streets that went every which way – some split off evenly, both shooting upwards and others zigzagged, while climbing in height. I found San Marino to be medievally awesome, but overly touristy – but I guessed as much. There were cheap liquor and tobacco stores, and discounted (most likely knock off) clothing and perfume shops everywhere. Every few streets led me to a windy and powerful outlook from the top of the cliff. The longer I wandered, the more unimpressed I became – but like a good tourist, I had my passport stamped just to add another piece to my travel stamp collection.

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And then I reached the towers on the northern-east side of San Marino – and my impression was reborn with a renewed love. The towers were built deep into the cliff-face, rising high in the air, giving the visitor a brilliant view of the surrounding land. I could see Rimini quite well, and other areas along the Adriatic coast. I continued on after the first tower, until I found the second. This was the last I visited (because I don’t think it’s possible to visit the third), but it was also my favorite. The view from this tower brought me views back toward the first tower, and my, oh my, what a wonderful photo op. The hotel operator at Hotel Elisabetta in Cesenatico invited me to stay an extra night after he asked me what my next plans were – how hospitable is that?! I returned to the hotel after hours of walking in the blistering bright sun atop San Marino. I was tired and sweaty, and a cold bottle of vino and delicious meal was floating in my mind, like a lustful dream.

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The next day I left Cesenatico around noon, heading out to Verona, via Ravenna and Bologna, Italy. I arrived in Verona a few hours later and instead of trying to tackle a lot within the city, I decided to just find my CouchSurfing host. I was staying with an Italian family on the east side of the town, and seeing as how I never really study the maps of places until I’m there, I took the bus and followed her directions from there – nothing too inspiring about that, I’m sure. Once I arrived, I joined the family in a quiet dinner of a local and modest soup. They were gracious enough to let me do my laundry and then turn in early. I may or may not have mentioned that I had been coming down with a bit of a cold around this time – I honestly can’t remember whether I had or not. My allergies were running amok and I was having trouble breathing at night – the whole week consisted of constant nasal flow, sneezing and wheezing. It was awful.

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But realizing that I was in Verona and I may never get another chance to visit again, I toughed up and walked the 20 minutes from my host’s house into the old district of the town. When I reached the Adige river, I skipped crossing the Navi bridge and instead walked down along the river until I found the Roman theatre. I took some time walking through the half ancient and half transformed facilities – and I couldn’t help but think to myself how amazing an opera or a play would be in there. I left and crossed back over the river, wandering near Verona’s Duomo and back again across the river, where I discovered the Castelvecchio – a castle and fortified bridge that stretches over the Adige river. It’s bricked with red stone, and looks pretty damn impenetrable.

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I walked over the bridge and through the castle, and followed a street that went along the river. I took a double, maybe triple take look at a restaurant at the end of the street. When I arrived to my host’s house, the mother of the family gave me a map and told me all of the great places to eat and the sights to see – and one of her highlighted points was a fantastic pizza place. Lucky for me, I looked back down at my map, because the name of the restaurant seemed familiar – and fondly enough, I was naturally led to the pizzeria by my hungry stomach, or some evil pizza God – or something, or other. I sat down at an empty table, in an empty room, of the empty bar of Pizzeria Vesuvio, and my life was changed. I ordered a calzone and to my surprise it was GIGANTIC! It was as large as a professional (American) football and stuffed with lovely goodies – even every bite was juicy and hot, and deliciously filled with scrumptious meats and cheeses and veggies – okay, okay, enough; it’s starting to sound like a weird porno film.

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Anyway, after leaving and paying a modest bill for my mouth-watering awesome meal, I had to burn off the 27 pounds of food I had just ingested, so I got back to wandering around Verona. I found my way back to the center of the old town, where I realized that I had just missed (by one street) the Roman Arena, which looked like a smaller version of Rome’s famous Colosseum. I found more interesting and historic spots, like the Piazza delle Erbe, Scaliger Tombs, and Juliet’s (tourist overrun) House. It was a long hot day and I decided that it was time to head back. After a shower and another nice, quiet dinner, I crashed in my bed. I slept much worse this night, wheezing and unable to breathe well for hours, so I knew that I had to take it easy for my third day in Verona. I wandered after midday back to the old center, where I sought out a few spots that I had missed, but wanted to see – including an outlook near the Roman Theatre. My touring day ended only two hours after it began, because of a massive thunderstorm was making its way into the town from the north.

I had two extra days between leaving Verona and having to be in Venice, that I hadn’t planned, but I felt so crappy that last second, I got in touch with another host and spent two more days in Verona. There were plenty of things that I wanted to see (like Garda lake, the Dolomites and a few other little towns in the area), but I felt that it was best to recover before traveling on. I wandered a bit more with my host, but mostly I took it easy, overall.

A quick final thought: I enjoyed Verona a lot and will visit again if I have the chance; however I didn’t enjoy the copious amount of smog that was evident in the air (and perhaps that didn’t help my condition), and I didn’t really feel the romance in the air, like I had hoped – but all in all, great travel destination for a few days.


More travel updates coming soon! Next update from Venice, Italy.

Other travel updates:
Travel update I – Barcelona, Spain
Travel update II – Madrid, Spain
Travel update III – Granada, Spain
Travel update IV – Ronda & Sevilla, Spain
Travel update V – Marrakech, Morocco
Travel update VI – Marseille & Nice, France
Travel update VII – Monaco & Florence, Italy
Travel update VIII – Rimini & Cesenatico, Italy

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