Weekly Exploration - Home Follow Up

This is a follow up to my earlier post, Weekly Exploration....

When I go out exploring, I like to find the streets off the beaten path. It's easy to find the 'touristy' streets, there are signs to them! But where do the Italians go? There is a street called, Via Mazzini that leads from Piazza Bra' (the largest town square in Italy, the guidebooks say) to Piazza Erbe (the site of the ancient Roman forum in Verona). This street, Mazzini, is lined with ice cream shops, newsstands and expensive stores. It is almost always packed with people! Italians would say, 'pieno di gente' while holding their fingers tight together and pointing them up, which means 'full of people".

I love that area, it is always bustling and full of life. Sometimes though it is so packed with tourists you can't imagine locals wading through the raff of people. So I love to meander through the alleys finding new passageways and nooks. Sometimes I'll walk all the way down an alley only to find it leads nowhere! Maybe a few doors, but nothing more. Today I found several streets that seemed out of the way for the out-of-towner. I found one street that was closed off to cars, set up for a two day blues festival (here's the program). Several restaurants with their outdoor seating were preparing for tonight's program of blues bands and tomorrow's full day of events. Another street held all the new stores that I listed on my earlier post. And other streets were brimming with people, but there were no tourists in sight. This is Italy. These are the people that we have come to tell about Christ and the relationship that they can have with him. For now, I will continue to explore the city, praying as I walk.


For more on:
Piazza Erbe
Piazza Bra