After spending a week in Verona I definitely agree with what I read before booking; it’s a great place to stay not only for the city itself but as a base to explore the region. Sure some parts are quite touristy, but when you get away from the main attractions it also has a nice quaint feel to it. The central pedestrian area is a bit fancy; not my favorite part, though it does have some really good gelato spots…

The city is easily walkable and the architecture is incredible; churches, castles, huge towers seem to be everywhere you look and many other buildings have a kind of old cottage look. They really have the fairytale thing going on strong, it’s actually pretty charming…

It’s a smaller city without trams and subways, but the bus system is very good and there’s a main hub right outside the train station, so getting to and from the station is very easy. This combined with the many connections via train make Verona an incredible place for day trips. I went north to Bolzano and Trento one day, and if I had planned things out better I could have easily made it to what I hear is the most beautiful vantage point of the Dolomites from a nearby mountain summit. Granted it was a local that told me that, but I do believe it would be spectacular all the same. Something I definitely want to see someday.

For this visit, my only other day trip was to Venice. It was shortly after they had a very high flood and the waters were again pretty high the morning I arrived. It settled quite a bit by around noon, and I was told this is actually pretty typical for them; that being said, the recent record highs did cause quite a bit of damage. I saw salvage boats going to buildings clearing out debris and some stores that still hadn’t reopened due to the needed cleanup and repairs. Definitely, a sad thing to see, but I admire the way they looked to take things in stride simply doing what needed to be done to move on. I guess dealing with the lower level floods regularly makes these bigger events somewhat expected once in a while. You can see platforms that they use create walkways a few feet off the ground in the photos, I’ve read that these are actually used rather regularly.

Even with the high water and cleanup going on Venice did not disappoint. I walked around all day making the most of this short one day visit. Truth be told though, it was while I was there that I decided to cancel my New Year reservation in the city. I think spending a few nights there some time, most likely a warmer time of year, would be nice. But wading through nearly knee-high water didn’t seem so appealing to me for New Years’. They do sell knee-high shoe covers all over town in case you’re thinking about it though… I might actually just opt for staying in Verona again though…

And now to a little look at costs for this stop… I’m still not sure if anyone is interested in this, but I figure I’ll keep it up for a little bit just to document some of it and give you some time to get around to looking it over… I personally think the more interesting ones will be longer stays in some more cost-effective places, but I’d love to hear your thoughts. Is there any interest in this out there? Would you like to see some video footage of the places I’m staying? Is there any other particular information you’d like to know?

This was a 7-night stay…

• Accommodation (Airbnb) –  $469.16
• Getting around locally and day trip trains – $70.67
• Living expenses (groceries, eating out, entertainment, etc.) including day trips – $182.66
• Mobile phones; I’m carrying a US line and an Italian one – $10.36
• SafetyWing Insurance – $14.94

______________________________________________________________________________

• Total $747.79 / 7 nights = $106.83 per 

Transportation can be a big expense, but I feel that would vary too much so I’ve left it out, along with any incidental/one time costs… I think what I’ve included will show a decent comparison of locations, and, if I get around to putting videos of the accommodations together, that could be pretty interesting too. There are a lot of variables still though, which is why I’m not 100% sure if it’s worth going through the trouble… so please, let me know what you think. I really appreciate your feedback!

*Some of these costs are approximate as I converted local currency to USD after the trip so there will be a slight variation from the real-time conversion.