Verona - Market, Arena, Rome Was Here. And Venice. And the Inquisition.

Verona's Old City is largely pedestrianized, but it is also a large, active community. This is not a big open-air museum, despite all the fine buildings. People live and work here.

Clocktower, street view, Old City, Verona, Italy

Market, Old Town, Verona, Italy

Verona's Arena looks like Rome's Colisseum, and was built by the Romans in the First Century. Gladiators, spectacles, all here.  See ://italy-travel.suite101.com/article.cfm/touring_roman_verona/

Roman Arena, passageway (flash adjusted), Verona, Italy

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Roman Arena, close-up, brickwork, interior vaulted arch passage, Verona, Italy

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These days, come in summer for the Opera.

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After the Romans came a variety of city-state rulers and kings.  In 1184, Pope Innocent III, at a gathering called the Council of Verona, instituted the Inquisition here. See timeline at ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=p&tbs=tl%3A1&q=timeline+Verona&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=/ Support the Roman Catholic interpretations of Christianity or die. The next 80 popes continued it. Churches can represent ill-gotten gains.

Then came the big one, Venice.

Lion of Venice, Piazza della Erbe, Verona, Italy

The Lion of Venice:  In the 9th Century, some dastardly folk from Venice stole the remains of St. Mark that had been entombed in Alexandria, Egypt.  The graverobbers concealed the corpse in pork to fend off the Muslims; then suspended it from the mainmast and braved a sea crossing where Saint Mark himself instructed them to strike the sails and thus saved them from hitting rocks.  Once at Venice, the remains were given to the Doge in Venice, who adopted Saint Mark as the city's patron saint.  Accordingly, St. Mark's traditional logo, a winged lion, became symbol of they city. See ://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/winged_lion_of_st_mark.htm/

Verona was conquered by the Republic of Venice in 1405. See timeline at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=p&tbs=tl%3A1&q=timeline+Verona&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=/.