WHERE FOR ART THOU ROMANCE?….

Two days in Verona, two in Lake Garda.   Sherbert coloured buildings glistening in the Italian afternoon light.   The exquisite architecture, fascinating history, and walkability.   It is a busy city that does things slowly.   Everything is blisteringly romantic and you will find it challenging to find a partner to match the moment.   Visit Boghetto and the Sigurti Gardens.   Ideal places for romance if you can't like the Clooneys afford Venice.
The least romantic bit about Verona is Juliets balcony.   You queue for the pleasure of woo hoooing to a courtyard full of tourists.   Stayed at the effortlessly stylish and polished Hotel Due Torri, in the centre, walking distance of the Arena where you can sit on hard stone seats and watch opera and ballet.   Take a blanket and cushion. I was here when I was 18 and didn't have that advice. And the ballet was bad so the Italian audience booed.  You wouldn't see that at the National.  Well, not since I've last been.
Food phenomenal. People wonderfully friendly and well, Italian, so happy about being happy. Italians are unfaithful to their meals, they talk about breakfast when they are eating lunch and talk lunch when they are eating supper.
The British appear so stilted when they travel to Italy, as though their anality stands out more in this environment, which was captured well in a Room With A View.   The Italians have their own stuff.   I talked to one of the hotel managers and we got onto the subject of Italian men.   She said she would never go out with an Italian man.  "They are all liars. As long as you know that you are fine. They will tell you anything and everything and be the centre of your world and then go and tell the next one exactly the same.    And they are passionate, the best lovers.   And they will always be true to their mothers.   They are vain.   And they are lazy."  But their country is wonderful.
Cycling along Lake Garda was bliss, on route to and from the wine festival there - although not a good idea to cycle back along the Lake, but I made it.  Veneto is dreamy.
And from one extreme to the other.
And I went to see Gone Girl, a film about a marriage which is toxic.   I would say it would resonate with over 90% of those who are married or who have been married, probably even higher.   OK, its extreme, but I don't think that extreme.  The man is lazy, unfaithful, selfish, boorish, self absorbed.  The woman is calculating, manipulative, angry and very disappointed.  And they are both fake and wish each other dead. Yup, true of most marriages I would say.