A Fair Tale in Verona

(Click to watch the panoramic view as you enter Verona!)



Based on yesterday, I had a decent amount of confidence today be better. I knew that navigating the train/bus/directions to the hostel would be no problem since it was daytime. The only thing giving me any anxiety was my cash flow.

Before I left the states I got a Eurocard. it's basically a cash card. You load it with funds electronically, then withdraw them from a cash machine - all with no fees. Genius, right? Well, the one little hiccup was that the card was accidentally put in my dad’s name instead of mine, so I had to arrange payment to him, then he puts the funds on the card. No problem, right? Well…

As it turned out, it took a little longer for my money to reach my dad than I had hoped, so my cash was running really low while I was waiting for the transfer. Thankfully my dad was on top of it and before I originally left for the train station yesterday, I learned he had taken care of it, the money should be there – or within 24 hours. So as long as that went through, then I was in for a day of smooth sailing.

So in the morning, my first stop was the Bancomat (ATM) on my way to the train. No such luck. The machine said I had “reached my daily credit limit”. I knew I should have about 30 EU left, so I tried a withdrawl of only 20 EU. Bingo! No problem. So from that I inferred that the transfer hadn’t happened yet. But it was something like 2:00am PST – perhaps it would complete the transaction once 8am rolled around...

In the mean time, I didn’t know if the hostel would expect payment upon arrival or departure, so I had to save at least 17EU just in case. Plus I needed 1 EU for the metro so that left me with a pretty small budget for the day (a little over 10EU).

This time I got on my train no problem and after two hours of lip-syncing with my ipod, I arrived. I hit up the Tourist Info for a map and a Verona card (8EU and you can use the bus for free all day, as well as get into all the museums, churches, and monuments for free). Then I went to the Bancomat again “you have exceeded your daily credit limit” – arg.

Next I found my bus and the bus driver helped me to get off at my correct stop and I hiked it up a hill for a few blocks to find the hostel. Fortunately they didn’t require payment in advance – but they did require my passport. Hmm, can’t use the internet without ID, but won’t have ID unless I pay my bill upfront. Plus, I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to get funds at all and then when it came time to pay at 9am – I’d be up a crick with no paddle. So I opted to pay. This left me with just under 3 EU in my pocket. That money had better come through or I’m going to be hungry again tonight and officially penniless and stuck in Verona tomorrow.

But I couldn’t do anything about that, so I decided to hit the sights. Rick had a self-guided tour, so I was gonna take it. But soon after I headed out, I realized, I need to eat. Now. Otherwise I’m just not going to make it. I lucked out and found a little bakery offering the biggest slice of pizza with about a twenty toppings on it for 2.50 - that was almost exactly what I had. Yes!!

After that I had the energy to take myself on a Rick-guided walk through town. I saw the original gate to the city, the surrounding protective wall (Verona is surrounded on three sides by a river and thus, the wall on the fourth side kept them completely protected), I saw Juliette's fabled house (that was actually pretty funny), as well as two large pedestrian squares for shopping and eating, and the third largest Roman Arena (like the Colosseum, but smaller) - so cool! Soon though it was dinner time and my energy was fading.

I headed back to the Bancomat, but was still refused funds. It looked like I was going without dinner again :( I headed back to the hostel tired, discouraged, and ready for bed (despite it being only about 8:30). Tomorrow I would have to figure it out. Fortunately breakfast came with my night at the hostel, so hopefully some rest and food would evolve a solution.