Verona, a pretty flashy place. The footpaths are actually marble (I kid you not). But the main attraction is right in the centre of town. A real, honest to goodness Colosseum!
Well naturally you have to do your best Frank Thring impersonation and condemn someone to death. It’s a momentous thing being able to plonk your posterior right down on the spot where innumerable Romans sat a couple of thousand years ago. We were even able to walk around the tunnels underneath – well worth the standard 10 Euro’s. 
They still use the Colosseum in Verona, it was being set up for an Opera while we were there.
In amongst all the mega expensive stores, we did spot this add in a Nescafé store promoting Australian inspired coffee. Coffee has now gone full circle – Italians are now being sold Australian coffee.
So the next morning we boarded the train over the Alps to Munich. It’s a little over 5 hours and instead of going from the sublime to the ridiculous, we went to the ridiculously sublime. As you head up the valley it almost immediately becomes incredibly scenic, little stone villages with churches perched high on escarpments as the train winds it’s way along through vineyards – even though it is exactly what you expect, it doesn’t make it any less delightful. Surprisingly after 2 hours threading our way up a deeply glacier carved valley, we were still less than 300m in elevation. You can see snowy Alpine peaks all around, but the valley is thriving with agriculture and industry. It would be an excellent place to retire except that as you can see from the photo – the local river is unwadeable, at least in late spring.
Even before you leave Italy, the signs switch to German giving a good indication of the historic fluidity of borders in Europe. But it also illustrates the ambition that separates real leaders from the rest of us. It is known that the average load carried by a Roman Legionnaire was about 30kg – the same as today’s infantry. Now if Julius Ceaser had of had ambition like me, instead of being the man who led his legions to smash the Germanic tribes, subjugate Gaul and tame the Britons, he would be the man who conquered Balzano, a nice little town surrounded by grape vines and just before the steep bits.
I would like to make 2 observations about Italy just before we leave:
- The Good – one thing to like about Italy is that no one over the age of 12 wears runners unless they are actually running. While many people put on clothes in the morning, the Italians seem to take the time to get dressed. There is a big difference.
- The Bad – Italy seems to be the last place on earth where people still think they look cool smoking. And they do it a lot – almost at Japanese levels.
