Why Verona, Italy?

We get asked that often.

We hadn't set this location in stone when we made these travel plans. It was penciled in for a long time with other options always coming and going. I never really confirmed where we were staying until our accommodation in Verona was booked which wasn't until late last year.

But Verona it was, in the end. Before we decided to stay a month here, a month there, I had personally chosen Verona as our base for the entire time here.

Literally, this is what happened...

We were looking at a map of Italy, trying to find somewhere to stay. Rome? Too busy, expensive. Venice, Milan, Pisa... similar. We wanted to stay away from the main tourist hubs Italy was known for so I literally scanned the map of Italy and saw Verona... and then I saw Mantua not far from there.

Both I knew were from Romeo and Juliet (Leo's version of course) and I paused on it and thought, why not? I didn't know anything about Verona at the time but it was enough to start researching.

We found it was cheaper than the other major cities. It was a city but small enough to walk from one end of the central city to the other. It was close to Milan; close to lakes (which Nathan wanted needed because he can't live far from water... because Fiji); close to Venice; Switzerland if we wanted to; access to all of Northern Italy if we had the time and means to explore.

Then it had great architecture and history we had hoped to find in Italy. A great starting point before moving further along the country.

And it had an LDS chapel. Everything was here - except us!