A Night at the Opera

On our last evening in Venice we strolled around, took a few pictures of some of the hundreds of smaller canals and had a pizza for dinner. The next morning we caught the train for the hour ride to Verona.

We're staying in the "Magnolia" b&b near the train station (of course). All the attractions here are within walking distance. It was nice to see a tree-lined boulevard for a main street on our first walk up to the ancient Roman forum. Once there, we bought tickets (25.50 each) for seats at last night's performance of the opera "Aida". The forum seats 22,000 people although possibly less for an opera because they close off and use one end as part of the stage.

After an afternoon cooldown (blazing hot day again) we had a nice dinner in a little cafe on the main street away from the touristy end of town and then walked up to get our unreserved seats in the upper level of the forum. It opened at 7:30 for a performance beginning at 9:15. What a zoo! You walk in the appropriate gate and go up the steps into the forum. Then when you emerge from the stairwell you're herded by attendants straight up the ancient stone seats or steps that are each about 18 inches high. They fill up each section and then move on to fill up the next. Luckily we were fairly early so we were seated with a full frontal view of the huge stage.

We had already heard that the stones were hard and hot from the sun so we had taken our fleeces to sit on. That was a good thing. We had also heard of the exorbitant prices for and refreshments so we took 4 small bottles of water and some snacks in our backpacks. We needed it. It was really a hot night but with almost a full moon it was great.

The floor and partway up the sides of the forum is fitted with modern seats. A front row seat can cost up to 386 euros - a little out of our price range. However, from our seats we saw everything just fine. One of the many amazing things about these performances is that there is no electronic sound amplification. The 50 or 60 person orchestra just plays their instruments and the singers sing. You can hear everything perfectly. These people are extremely talented. Sometimes only one person is on this huge stage and other times we counted over 200 easily.

When the opera started it was fantastic. Although not our cup of tea, it was such a huge spectacle with great sets, costumes and very professional singers and musicians you can really get caught up in the very melodramatic emotions of the performance, even though it's in Italian. Luckily we had read up on the plot on wikipedia before we went so we always had some idea of what was going on through the approximately 3 1/4 hours of the performance (including 2 20 minute intermissions). Oddly enough, going to the opera is one of the highlights of our trip so far. It just doesn't seem possible to stage an opera on this scale indoors anywhere because everything is so huge. Plus we were in a 2,000 year old forum sitting on the same seats that the ancient Romans would have sat on to watch one of their spectacles, with the same moon shining down on us. It really was a unique, unforgettable experience.

After getting home at about 1 am we were a little slow getting out this morning but eventually walked up to see the old house advertised as the "home of Juliet" which of course is pure tourist stuff since Juliet is fictional. However, it was a nice courtyard except for the other thousand tourists there. Then we walked across an old bridge and up the hill past a Roman forum to an old citadel. The builder in me can't help but notice how the Romans built things and used some of the proven simple techniques that we still use (or should use) today.

On the way back we bought 1/2 a rotisseried chicken in a butcher shop and had it along with some tomatoes in the AC comfort of our room for a late lunch. After that, it actually thunder stormed. This is a major event for us. We have seen nothing but hot (like upper 30s) sun since we left San Sebastian 2 1/2 weeks ago. It's sunny out again now but hopefully when we go back out it will be a little cooler. We plan to go out for a nice dinner this evening and get the 7:58 train to Brennaro in northern Italy and then switch to an Austrian train to Innsbruck. We should be there in the early afternoon for a couple of days. A little further north and higher elevation may bring a welcome relief from the heat. Plus, we feel like we've had a good taste of Italy and are now ready to move on.