Verona, Italy

We decided to rent a car and go for a drive. We headed west and drove to Verona. Here's CJ by the water:

Another view:
Our little car, the Fiat 500. It was fun to drive, and got great gas mileage!

We stumbled across Juliet's balcony, here's CJ next to it:

The clock tower in the town square:

A fountain:
More of the town square:
Little old me by the water:

Renting that car was quite the adventure in and of itself. We hadn't planned on driving anywhere but I wanted to see more of Italy than just Venice. We came all this way, might as well make the most of it! I figured since they drive on the right side of the road I wouldn't get us killed, not so sure I could drive in London! Just riding on the bus was unnerving! Anyway, we got the car and I had to go get gas right away. After filling up I couldn't get the car into reverse. Now keep in mind that I owned 2 different cars that had were manual shift, so I know how to drive a stick. The guy laughed at me and said 'no automatic'. Thanks buddy, super helpful! Come to find out there's a little button you have to hold down to shift into reverse, then it stays in gear.

Our map wasn't super helpful, looking back we should have bought a better detailed map, but oh well. After Verona we drove to Milan, that city is HUGE! We spent at least a couple hours driving around lost, trying to find the correct freeway. Their highways aren't numbered, you come across a sign saying 'to' a certain city. That's all well and good, except you have to know where that city is! We finally found our way back, but then how do we find the hotel? I actually drove into Venice and came back out, trying to follow the bus route we rode into the city. It worked, and we got home safe.

Then we had to return the car, easier said than done! We had to park the car on the top level of the parking garage (level 10). Sounds easy enough. We get in there and it's a spiral drive up. I have an extremely LOW tolerance for getting dizzy, it's gotten worse over the years. I seriously have a hard time spinning around in a circle. We get half way and I'm feeling car sick already. At last we get to the top but there's not a place to park. It's around 11am and people are just getting there, no one is leaving. I circle a couple times then head down to check out level 9. Some lady yelled at me that it was private parking so back up we went. After a few more circles I decided to park in an area marked 'reserved'. I had CJ get out and hold up the rope (the car was small enough) and I pulled in. Right after I parked another guy did the exact same thing. I went down and dropped off the keys. The guy asked if I was on level 10 and I smiled and said 'yes'!

Good times!