In My Humble Opinion: Verona by Candlelight

I know that people tend to say Paris is the city of all things love and romance, but those people have clearly never visited Verona! An Italian city full of beautiful architecture and Romeo and Juliet anyone?

As far as a city goes, there is very little that Verona doesn't offer: beautiful scenery? Check. Big building immersed in history in culture? Check (if you are wondering this would be the Colosseum). Amazing places to wine and dine? Check. Offer to have an experience you will never forget? Check.

Romeo and Juliet

Right so we all will have done this story in detail at school at some point or other, and if not we have all seen the movie with the young Leonardo DiCaprio showing us what he's got! The story is about young love (lust) which ended in tragedy (totally unnecessarily I might add). But it’s one of the most famous stories of our time and the second line in the play reads “in fair Verona where we lay our scene”. And there you have it – a link to Shakespeare – what on earth could be more cultural?

As the tourists we were, and as two of us still remain today huge English Literature Nerds we felt it only respectful to seek out and find Juliet’s famed balcony. And When we did we weren’t disappointed – we even got to touch Juliet’s right boob for luck (yes that’s a thing – who knew?)

Opera

But there is another reason that Verona attracts hordes of people from all over the world and that my friend is the Opera! Now I know as well as anyone that Opera isn’t for everyone (preaching to the choir) but this just isn’t opera- this is an epic experience. Firstly it takes place under the stars in the old Colosseum (a.k.a The Roman Arena)! Yes You did read that correctly – in the Colosseum, sitting on the same seats and looking down at the same place that the Romans would have sat and watched their gladiator games. Amazing doesn’t even begin to cover it. You cant miss it - it's situated in the Piazza Bra in the centre of the city.

In the UK when you see an Opera you might get lucky to see a horse tentatively brought out onstage, in Verona you have six or seven galloping around the set. The set is just amazing and the acoustics are on another level! I have to admit that I had no idea what was actually happening on stage (and trying to follow it on Wikipedia didn’t exactly help) but it didn’t put a damper on the experience at all.

What made it even more magical was the fact that upon entrance into the Colosseum you got given a small candle to light at the beginning of the show. Trust me you haven’t lived unless you have seen an entire Colosseum lit by candle light – just how it used to be in Roman times. Another thing to mention here is that seeing the opera is like pulling an all nighter – literally. Our show started at 22.00 and finished in the early hours of the morning.