Verona begins at the Portoni della Bra. You enter through one of the two large archways, where atop sits a large clock with roman numerals. When I entered it read 11:40, and I was reminded too soon that I barely had a day to explore the city and that the following morning I would already be leaving Italy. The closer I got the more imposing the structure became. Portoni is the Italian word for gates, while in the singular form, Portone, it means doorway or entrance. I find it interesting how a word in one form welcomes, while in another it connotes a necessity to be invited or to have permission to enter. I could imagine that once, a long time ago, soldiers of Verona’s ruling family would march back and forth along the gates’ battlements in surveillance.
The archway leads directly to Piazza Bra, and immediately I begin to understand why Shakespeare wrote these words immortalized behind the Portoni: “There is no world without Verona walls, but purgatory, torture, hell itself.”
0 Comments
|
best handled with a glass of wine
Archives
January 2018
Categories |