David Beckham!!! Is that you?!?!

Easter weekend the girls and I decided to chill in Verona because Italy is a really Catholic country that believes in spending Easter with friends, and we didn't want to get caught up in the travel chaos. The weather is beautiful so we spent a decent amount of time just laying outside and relaxing. It ended up being a very chill weekend which was exactly what most of us needed.

Friday we spent the whole day just relaxing and then hiked up to the Point to watch the sunset. The Point is a little park on the other side of the Adige River just past Ponte Pietro (the Roman Bridge). Its up on the top of a hill and sports one of the best views in Verona. It is so peaceful up there since hardly anyone knows about it. We got some Gelato at the little Gelateria at the bottom of the hill which is actually the best gelato I've had in Italy yet. You get a giant scoop for 1E and its the best tasting. Their mango and their cinnamon are my favorites. Gelato is possibly the most amazing thing ever. Its not ice cream...its like the God of all deserts.

The next day we went to the AC Milan v. Verona Chievo Soccer game. It was really cool! The fans were pretty intense and the stadium was awesome. You could see the alps from our seats which was really neat. AC Milan has some of the worlds best players on it like David Beckham, Ricardo Kaka, and Ronaldinho. Then there was this kid named Pato who is 19 and was absolutely incredible! He appeared to be better than just about the entire rest of the team! It was soooo cool to watch his foot work as he wove his way down the field. The Verona team was actually better than I expected as they were able to fend off all of Milan's goal attempts but one. We had a lot of fun at the game. It was hilarious watching all the little Italian boys shake their fists and yell at the field in unison with their fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers...etc. It is said that your team comes before family, job, the rest of your life here. You basically live for your team. Its really cool. They also had a moment of silence at the beginning of the game for all the victims of the L'aquila earthquake.

It was an absolutely perfect weekend. We had a wonderful time and it allowed for us to decompress a little before the busy weeks ahead. Verona is a beautiful little city, especially now that it is spring time. It looks a lot like Tuscany with its rolling green hills and vineyards all over the place. The entire city is also covered in blooming lilac which gives it the most intoxicating smell and gorgeous appearance. Everything is in bloom right now and I have come to learn that here you can find beauty in the most unexpected places. For example, on the way to Eurospin (the discount grocery store down the road), there is a field heading out to Chievo that is completely covered in yellow flowers. Its absolutely spectacular. The field backs up to the Alps, creating a picture perfect vision of Italy in the spring.

That Sunday we all got dressed up and walked to Easter mass at San Zeno. San Zeno is a cathedral down the street from us a little ways that was built in the 12th century. It is gorgeous and is built of two varying shades of marble, giving it a striped appearance. This time, I was able to understand a little more of the mass. The church was packed. I have never seen so many people in a church before at any given time. I was amazed. They ran out of chairs quickly and soon people were standing in the aisles to the point where if there were an emergency and the building needed to be quickly evacuated, this would have been impossible. But it was a wonderful service none-the-less. After mass we ran into Martin and his wife and then walked into town for some lunch. The rest of the day was spent enjoying the day outside and listening to the bells of San Zeno ring from our balconies.