You Can’t Sit There- Matt and Leslie try not to F up in Europe, Ch.8- Verona and Goodbye

(Continued vacation story/how-to.. See “You Can’t Sit There- Matt and Leslie try not to F up in Europe, Ch.7- Dolomiti” for previous)

This was it. This was our final day of vacation, which meant it was my final day with Matt before he headed back to the states. I tried not to think about it as we drove out of the Dolomites with the sun shining down.

We knew we had a decent amount of driving to do for the day, with our only planned stop being Verona, so we actually took highways. And they were definitely highways- lots of cars, people driving like idiots, minimized views of the surrounding area. Oh! And the TOLLS. Goodness gracious. I think we spent about 25 euros on tolls on the way back to Milan!

Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, though.

Anyway. We made it to Verona in maybe 2-3 hours. As we tried to exit to get into town, we took a few wrong turns, almost ended up on the highway again, had to do a few loops.... The usual. Our main sightseeing destination was the Verona Arena which is a small Colosseum that is actually still in use as a performance space! I think mostly (if not entirely) for operas. We found the Parcheggio Saba Arena which is a parking garage that is about a 7 minute walk from the arena. I’m not sure why, maybe our fatigue from the trip or mild anxiety about the trip ending were starting to kick in, but the garage itself was actually a bit confusing. We couldn’t figure out where the entrance was and where to park at first, but eventually went down a few levels and found a spot.

Sidenote: another cool European parking garage thing (maybe we do this in the states? but I hadn’t seen it before Stockholm)- they actually have lights and sensors above each spot that are red or green to indicate if a car is parked in that spot or not. It makes it at least easiER to look across the whole floor and see where there might be open spots instead of having to wander through every aisle. That said, technology is not perfect, and I have seen small cars that don’t set off the sensor so the light stays green even though it is not vacant. But still.

So we parked and started walking to the Arena.

It was neat to be with Matt when he saw something like this for the first time. I have been lucky enough to go to Rome and other places with endless Roman ruins, but I liked getting the opportunity to experience this one with Matt.

Verona Arena:

• Built in the 30 AD, though parts had to be rebuilt in 1170 ish after an earthquake

• Still in use for performances

• Used to seat about 30,000 people but now they max it out at 15,000

• They might also run tours during the day, but I’m not sure. We just walked around it.

Set props and such for the opera that night!

As we headed to another few spots in town (we didn’t have that much time), we saw a small bar/cafeteria to grab a sandwich (doesn’t even show up on Google Maps!). I also wanted to make sure Matt got some real Italian gelato before he left, which they had. We had a slight miscommunication about what we were getting and where we were eating (again, I think a consequence of the end of vacation fatigue and anxiety), so it was a little stressful, but we ate our gelato as we walked back around the Arena and then sat in a small park to eat our panini.

Essentially we spent another hour or so walking around town seeing a lot of old stuff haha. Churches, a castle, an old arch, the old entryway into the city, a statue of Dante. And so forth. It’s an adorable little town, and I do wish we had had a little more time to explore, but it was a good lunch stop!

We walked back to our car (paid outside at a machine and exited without issue, thank goodness), but then struggled in getting out of the city hah. Again, the roads and our navigation were not quite lining up/were a bit confusing, so we missed a turn or two and had to do a loop. We were headed back to Malpensa airport to return our rental car, but we knew we needed to stop somewhere and get gas before we did. As passenger side navigator, I found a few gas stations on the map, and just navigated to the one closest to the airport. Unfortunately, we were ACTUALLY in need of gas (not just refilling for the rental return), so I had to quickly reroute to one closer. The first one we stopped at appeared to ONLY be a service station… so someone would come pump it for us.. And we frankly just could not handle figuring that out. So we navigated to another one about 5 minutes away, eyes locked closely on the gas tank meter for fear of running out. It’s just not a Leslie and Matt trip if we don’t make everything complicated haha.

We made it to the gas station, and of course pull up to a service pump, but luckily the guy working there was nice enough to explain that the other pump was self-service, so we backed up and pulled into that one. While Matt filled up the tank and paid, I cleaned out the car and started repacking items into our bags. I hadn’t realized we had accumulated about 5 empty water bottles, 3 energy drink cans, 4 snack bar wrappers, a bag with melted chocolate on it, and some pringle crumbs had spilled all over the floor. We are absolutely adults. I promise.

We headed back to the Sixt Rental Car return anndd of course the signs barely made sense. We followed all the arrows towards Sixt and they ended up taking us in about 3 loops but eventually getting us to the right spot. We parked right about 5:30pm which I think was about 30 minutes after our scheduled return time. Close enough.

After all of that, we still had to catch the train from inside the terminal back to Milano Centrale near my apartment.

We had decided to do a final dinner date night in Milan, so while on the train I made a reservation at a cute restaurant called Nobless Oblige near my apartment (online of course.. Leslie doesn’t call people). We got back, showered really quickly, put on non-roadtrip clothes, and walked over.

It ended up being the perfect place for us have date night. It wasn’t very busy, the workers were so sweet and kind and spoke english to us with no hesitation. The food was delicious,

the wine was delicious,

and the view… man… I could not get enough…

We got back to my apartment maybe around 10pm, and instead of snuggling up on the couch and watching a movie together like we wanted, we unpacked from the trip and repacked for Matt to head home. Sad. Times.

Wednesday morning we got up about normal time for a work day, showered, got dressed, and both walked to the train station. As good as it was to see Matt after 3.5 months apart, it was 10x harder to say goodbye. Not going to lie to you.. I never do… but I cried as I hugged him goodbye and had to watch him head to his train as I walked towards the metro.

Most of you reading this already know that when I am with Matt, everything is better. Whether we are just sitting on the couch at home or travelling the world, I am more at ease, I am more confident, I laugh harder, and I love harder. This vacation was one that I will never forget, and it is immeasurably special to me that I got to share it with the man I love.

That said, anyone single that has been following along, this trip would still be AMAZING to do solo ha. I tried my best to describe the super accessible portions of this trip so that ANYONE can do the same without fear or hesitation. There are beautiful communities of people all around the world, and I encourage you all to go meet them.

See you soon!!!!