There are two train stations in Verona

For those of you who don't know, I travel down to Vicenza, IT about once a month for work. The first couple of times that I went it seemed much more glamorous, but after about the 10th or 11th time, Vicenza is just Vicenza. So, in order to take advantage of going down there frequently, I have begun to take an afternoon/evening trip to somewhere that's local. Last time was Venice, this most recent time (about three weeks ago) was Verona. They are both only about a 45 minute train ride from downtown Vicenza, so it's pretty dang convenient.

Wiesen overlooking the bridge

My coworker/friend and I went down town and bought tickets, which stated that we should get off at Verona Porto Nuova. So, when our train station came up, we hopped off the train into an area that seemed a little bit uninhabited for such a popular destination. We wandered around and eventually found our way to the main sights (after having to make a phone call to figure out how to get there since neither one of us had actually planned out anything ahead of time).

Juliet's house, complete with famous balcony

Of course, Verona is known for the Casa di Giulietta (Juliette's House) from the great Shakespeare play. I will admit, though, that in my naivety, I did not know that those two figures actually existed until arriving at the house. But they did, and now the house, which includes the famous balcony, is a beacon of lovers (and locks to solidify that love) from around the world. Apparently, the legend goes that if two lovers lock a lock together on this place, their love will last forever.

After finding the house, we wandered around a little more, of course hitting up [a couple] gelaterias (ice cream shops), and then deciding to head back to Vicenza. We got to the train station where we got off at about 20:20 (8:20 pm). In looking around and at the train schedule, something seemed a little off. We then realized that neither one of us had paid close attention when we got off the train, and we got off at the Verona Porto Vescovo station rather than the one we had intended to. (In our defense, the station names were almost exactly the same...)

Wiesen didn't find his Juliet this time around, but there's always next time...

We saw that the schedule listed a train going to Vicenza so we went to that track. However, when the train came, it wasn't headed toward Vicenza but toward the main train station where we were supposed to be in the first place to catch a train back to Vicenza. But...we didn't know that we needed to be there, so we let the train go. After it left, we re-checked the schedule on the wall and realized our mistake, but the next train wasn't coming for another 45 minutes or so. Rather than wait, in my infinite wisdom, I suggested that we walk to the other train station (since we couldn't ind any cabs around) because it would probably be faster than waiting since it was only 3k away. That turned out to be a wrong assumption, and we watched the train pass us about 500 meters ahead over a bridge while we walked.

Thankfully we made it to the station in time to catch the last train back to Vicenza for the night (otherwise that would have been a really ridiculous cab ride or a really miserable call to our First Sergeant). The walk definitely seemed like much longer than 3k, and it was one of those, "we'll look back on this and it will be a funny story" moments.

...Turns out it is :)