Day 27: Verona

Romeo Romeo, where for art thou Romeo? Sadly the romance came crashing down as soon as we arrived today.  I made an honest mistake and booked our gorgeous apartment for only 4 people.  I thought I had emailed the host to request the booking for 5, but it seems I didn't and when I handed over 5 passports after she had shown me around her divine place, she told me we couldn't stay.  I was speechless and sent Rick in to negotiate as we had already paid in full.  She was very Italian and cashed up and a little bit snooty and definitely not prepared to bend the rules because according to her, she would loose her licence if the polizia came knocking on her Double Bay equivalent apartment door. It would never happen of course, but she was not backing down. So Rick is staying up the road in a dodgy 2 star 70 Euro a night hotel room, while us "4" stay here in luxury. He is allowed to be here during the day and up until late at night, but he is not allowed to "sleep" here.  I feel dreadful.  Our apartment is the biggest and most impressive that we've stayed in so far.  In fact you could comfortably live here and there is enough linen and crockery and seating and bedding for 8 people, but she wasn't prepared to turn a blind eye.  I felt sick and it has dominated the day sadly. Anyway Verona is lovely and pretty.  The mini colosseum is gorgeous and the streets are very sheikh. Their is a definite upmarket feeling to the northern towns so far and there are lots of tourists here which we didn't see in Parma.  We walked and walked and saw beautiful buildings and Piazza's which dare I say are all becoming a little the same.  Lunch was lovely.  Rick had a ravioli with some fish and prawns that tasked like yabbies. I had spaghetti marina and it was one of the best we've ever tasted.  We meandered through the streets throughout the afternoon but no gelato was on offer today. The kids are becoming hard work, especially Zachary.  I'm not sure if its because they miss our companions or home and their friends, but I could have left them behind and consequently dished out the punishments hard and fast, including no gelato or lemonades.  So tonight we opted to come home and just veg in front of the TV with fruit salad for dinner.  They barley spoke and just stared at the Italian speaking cartoons for a few hours.  This morning while I packed up in Parma they watched "The Knight Rider" our first english speaking show in weeks.  They were very happy and were hopeful to see it again tonight. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow and we can get back on the gelato eating extravaganza they are becoming all to used too.  I called Sally Martin in London to sort a few things for our week there. I am excited to be catching up and we are all looking forward to a change of pace, especially Lego Land which is high on the kids priority list.  Rick headed out into the abyss around 10 pm and I can only hope that he will arrive safely back in the morning.  I am cursing our host and myself for the mistake and hope tomorrow will be a brighter day.