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by
Kelly Kent
While driving to Venice, Forgetio dropped us off for lunch in Verona, home
of star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. Known as the Gateway of Italy, Verona
has its own 
miniature
Colosseum where operas are still performed today.
During our brief time in Verona, we met some Italian gentlemen who cut my Margarita
pizza and carried me in my wheelchair up a flight of stairs to the bathroom!
The waiters at restaurant 
Le
Cantine d’ Area said the bathroom was only a few steps away, but in reality
six men had to help me get up the stairs.
With only a few minutes before Forgetio returned, we walked to the homes of
the main characters from Shakespeare's Romeo 
and
Juliet. It was the ultimate touristy thing to do, but we didn’t care!
We were fortunate enough to see a bearded Romeo standing on Juliet’s balcony.
Interestingly, in between the streets of the homes are some of the trees that
supposedly started the quarrel between the two families.
We’re
on the move…
We cried buckets of tears as we said goodbye to Forgetio and hola to Helen,
the courier who took us to our hotel in Venice. It took some time before, one
of the only, accessible boats in Venice took us to the pier closest to hotel
Il Violino D’oro, which happened to be the dock of the Westin hotel. The
boat was equipped with an electronic lift. It was a close call (approximately
an inch), but fortunately I could fit into the cabin area. After a smelly cruise
through Venice, Helen walked us through the Westin hotel lobby and helped us
check in to our
hotel.
In all of our trips to big cities, we have never paid as much for a room as
we did in Venice!! Our room was tiny! Other than the huge toilet seat, there
was nothing special about our room! The room I shared with my 
mom
overlooked a canal, which was nice until you wanted to go to sleep. Unfortunately,
it was hot and the hotel had already turned off the air-conditioning so we were
left to open the windows in order to keep cool. We fell asleep to the sounds
of men singing in the gondolas and woke to find enormous mosquito bites all
over our bodies!
To be continued… Visiting Venice!
©K. Kent Last Updated: January 7, 2008 Email
Kelly Kent
