24 Apr 2024
The Verona walk was a bit underwhelming and did not live up to the expectation that had been built by everything I had seen, heard and read about the city and the tour. The tour involved a long stretches of uninteresting and commentary-less walking through busy roads and less sight-seeing and descriptive interludes. The guide Serena had done a good amount of homework in bringing pictures, maps and documents to show us at some focal points, but nothing really was not enough to stir much interest in the sights. The arena turned out to be another anticlimactic sight. The ongoing work, in preparation for the upcoming season of operas and concerts, makes the arena look more like a construction site with its cranes and work-crews than a stirring historic sight to behold. The fact that this is an arena is still in use is like a double-edged sword, I guess. Is it a historic venue that takes away one’s breath, or just another commercial structure where modern events are conducted for the paying public? I think it is time the city makes up its mind about how they want to present it to tourists who come from all over the world to see it. Not everyone can experience a concert or opera to get the full effect of the arena, right?