Fair Italia

It's been over 11 years since we were last in Italy and although we remembered loving the country, we couldn't quite remember why. I think it may have been the people.

With a continual shortage of Internet access we had hurriedly made a booking for a hotel in Verona whilst in Kronach. We were shocked by the prices and confused as to why out of 176 hotels listed on the website only 12 were available. If we had more time we might have discovered that Verona is hosting Europe's largest and reportedly best, wine festival. As our landlord told us, the worst time to be a tourist and best time to run a hotel as prices soar.

After 9 long hours on the train we followed what seemed incomprehensible directions which led us to an apartment block. With some confusion we inspected the names on the buzzers, found our b&b listed, but received no response when we pressed the button. Luckily one of the other residents, a charming old man, was entering and took an interest in us. As my non-existent Italian was better than his English our conversation was in single words more or less.
"No response?" "No response" "you must telephone" "no telephone" etc.

The lack of response was not entirely unexpected as the notes when we booked had said we needed to be specific with arrival times so that they would be there and we were half an hour early. Our unexpected companion took us in to the building, told us that the b&b was on the top floor and if they weren't there to come down and knock on his door and he would call for us. All using one or two word phrases, with gestures as needed. Generosity of strangers, part 1.

When our landlord, Maurizio, arrived he was exuberant, friendly and devastated we weren't spending more time in his beloved city. After spending a pleasant half hour chatting he had us convinced we needed at least a week in Verona, although he suggested we should come back later in our trip once prices became reasonable again. Only a few minutes after saying "Ciao" he was back agin to retrieve the Nutella from his pockets for our breakfast. Nutella is always going to endear someone to me.

As it was already 8:30pm by this stage we decided to head straight to the train station to work out when we would need to leave the next day. On the way to the station I heard "Ellen!" as Maurizio stopped his bicycle in front of us and proudly announced he was quicker than us. Feeling momentarily confused we found out he had already been to the station, enquired about what train we should take, and had the print out from the information desk in hand. Generosity of strangers, part 2.

With no further need of the train station we did an about face to find the restaurant Maurizio had recommended. After polishing off 2 delicious pizzas, our bill arrived and the waiter with a large smile gave us 2 glasses of limoncello. Mmmm limoncello! No other table seemed to be receiving limoncello and the pizza cost less than a glass of it would at home. Feeling nicely warm and fuzzy we assigned it to the generosity of strangers (or restaurants) part 3.

Yep, think it may have been the people that made us love Italy.