Verona Area: La Traviata

La Traviata

Well we made it to Verona to see La Traviata at the Arena. It was amazing. I felt just like an ancient Veronese arriving for the show 3 hours standing in line waiting for the gates to open. Now they had all the fun. We had a blast with the people that were sitting around us. I will tell you that humor crosses all languages. What is funny will make any one laugh.

Let me tell you should have saw Gail push and shove her way in line to get through the gates. At one point there was this frail lady holding her husbands hand as he moved through the crowd like a master, however he never looked back as his wife was falling farther and father behind him.

Now, she was up in the front with Gail, and Gail being the helpful person that she is saw the woman slow losing her husband hand ( however he was pushing his way to the front) now she had a backpack on I saw gail grab a hole of the loop on the top of her back pack and physical lift her up two ancient steps closer to her husband. All I saw was Gail holding the back pack and the woman floating up the stairs. I though I was witnessing a miracle. As Gail lifted her the frail woman lost her balance and grabbed the ass woman in front of her. I only know this because she was wearing an orange stripped knit dress. This was just the start of our evening waiting for the opera to begin.

Now while I was truing to make my way up the stairs there was this woman next to Gail yelling at her husband to move it up to the front of the line. As he was looking at her a space opened just large enough for me to slide in ahead of him-- this really pissed her off and with that move I was moving to the front of the line handing my ticket to the ticket girl. I am proud to say that we made it inside.

With Gail’s keen eye she spotted the perfect place to sit. it was the top level of the stone seats of the area. We had a stone seat and a stone back rest and as Martha Stewart would say “that’ s good thing”.

As the seats filled in around us the was a row of seats that were on the lowest level. When you sat in these seats you were eye level with the row of seats that cost 80 euro. It was the biggest joke the users keep bring people down to those seat. Well this is how I felt about it it you come 2 hours late you sit where you sit. REALLY. Well each time a group would sit down we would look at each other someone would say something in Italian we would say some thing in English and we would all start laughing when they stood up to leave----- this happened 10 times. By the 6th time we just started laughing when they started down the steps. It was a clear case of humor is a universal language.

I loved the opera, but sitting in the area for 3 hours before the show started was the best. I know why the peasant class enjoyed it so much the food, the wine, the laughter.

Ciao