Trip Report Day Five

Day Five: Thursday, June 29, 2006

 Our breakfast at the castle probably has to be the worst breakfast of the trip. I had Melba toast and juice. But the atmosphere more than made up for the lack of food. I’m not a big breakfast eater anyway.
We left the castle 9:30 am and stayed on the bus for way too many hours. We of course took our autogrill stop. This was becoming old hat for us. Find the bathroom, pay your .50 euro, find some food to eat, shop in the forced shopping exit, load the bus again. We arrived in Verona just in time to get ready for the opera. I was so tired. I tried to sleep on the bus, but I drifted in and out of conciousness. So I was not prepared to be alert at the opera. So I guess you could say this was the second longest day evah. The arena was practically a straight shot from the hotel, so we decided to forgo the shuttle bus the with 50 other people waiting for it and walk there.   We ended up at the castle, but found the arena a block or so away. It was an amazing site.

I wish I could tell you how amazing the opera was. I wish I could tell you it was one of the best musical events of my life.   But I can’t. I was just too tired to appreciate it. It was long opera, it was in Italian, and I kept nodding off. Theo wouldn’t let me go to sleep, so somehow I made it through the whole of Aida. The set was amazing, the music beautiful, the singers wonderful. Yes. All that. But it was sort of like a dream. So next time I go to Verona, I want to see an opera fully alert. Maybe Carmen?

When we got the hotel (Hotel Piccolo- how appropriate) it was after 1 am. I had no trouble falling asleep! It was a very long day.