Tag: Verona

THE RETIREES GO AROUND THE WORLD – SUTTON HOO UK to CARDIFF WALES – CAERLEON.

We had heard about some Roman ruins just outside of Cardiff and the Museum – “Roman Legionary Museum”. We have visited Rome and roman ruins in Rome, Verona, Pizza and Cesi and Carsulae outside Terni Italy plus Hadrian’s Wall and Littlecote Roman Villa in Wiltshire, so we were not expecting to be surprised but we were.

The town is a pretty Welsh village. Entry is gained through a single lane bridge, and the main street is clean and interesting. After parking in front of the site of the Roman Bath House at the back of a very popular local pub, we strolled through the village waiting for the building to open.

The pictures below take you on that stroll. First is the Priory – now an accommodation hotel but retaining the features of the former Priory with a pair of hares in the back yard. There are some interest wood carvings of a forest gnome, a priory student in cloche and priory guardian. Then there is the pub, a reused telephone box to house a defibrillator, a pretty pub, and the museum entrance.

The site is the location of the main Roman legion and fort for the subjugation of the Welsh tribes. Life at the edge of the Roman Empire could be short, hard and dangerous so this fort provided the legionaries a place for rest and relaxation, and it was also their barracks. I have included two of the pages from a comic book containing images of the likely appearance of the building, the interior of the enclosed pools, and the garrison. The baths comprised the hot room (“caldarium”), the warm room (“tepidarium”) and the cold room (“frigidarium”) – you can see the English words in the Latin description.

2025.10.20 Isca Caerleon Roman garrisonDownload

The pictures of the bathes with imagery of soldiers relaxing and using the spa follow. Photos of the replicas displayed in the Exhibition Hall are below.

Our entry fee included a visit to the museum. I have included photos of some of the exhibits. The building materials surprised me – properly design pipes and building blocks. They also had the epithets or headstones of graves and cremations.  A stone casket. Partially restored tiles exhibited the beauty of the decorations.

We stopped at the Bull Inn for lunch and encountered Jeremy Clarkson and his farm products. Other things of interest appear in the following photos. St Cadocs’ Church and graveyard. The remains of the Roman amphitheatre and the carvings in the park. An annual event in the village produces these wonderful carvings.

Returning to Cardiff, Kerry, being ever thoughtful, thought she had found another castle – Castle Hensol. We used the GPS in our car and the postcodes for the destination to find everything and it worked perfectly, even on this occasion.  Time brings about change and so it was with Castle Hensol. It was now the centre piece of a gated residential development and golf course. The wine tasting that the advertising had promised had led us on a wild goose chase. After a lot of guessing we found our way only to be disappointed. We needed a booking.

That ends another chapter in our around the world adventure. So, watch out for my next blog on THE RETIREES GO AROUND THE WORLD – CARDIFF to PEMBROKE WALES – WEOBLEY CASTLE and KIDWELLY CASTLE.

The Retirees go Abroad – Verona Overnight

David and Veronica are now on their way to Rome and we head north to Salzburg in Austria. We have broken the trip into two parts – Lucca to Verona and Verona to Salzburg. We are hoping that we will get away from the heat for a while.

Travelling north through the heart of Italy we saw much the same scenery that abounded in Tuscany and it did not get much cooler. As it was an overnight we stayed in the Best Western CTC Verona. Tommy got terribly confused and took us miles from our destination but eventually we arrived. Quickly we unpacked and drove into the old town of Verona principally to see the balcony from which Juliette received those immortal words “Juliette, Juliette wherefore art thou Juliette”.

We found the parking station and walked through the old gate and ran smack into a Roman Amphitheatre. Verona has managed to preserve this historic part of its Roman history and today uses it for less violent activities. Presently they are preparing the stage for an Egyptian themed production.

Kerry was indisposed when I heard drums chants and whistles outside the arena. Maybe they have caught a Christian or two for the lions I thought but no it was a protest of some sort – most boring. We then headed into the streets of old Verona in search of a Shakespearean experience. Past dress shops and shoe shops and bag shops – hard work I can tell you until we saw the sign. There in front of us was a Japanese bus tour – they had found Juliette’s balcony.

We could not leave it there we had to find Romeo’s pad. Back into the street armed with a tourism map marked with all the sights, we found the Palace, Palazzo della Ragione, the Palais of Justice, the old city well, a church with grand tombs around it and a Square dedicated to a famous French writer whose name I have forgotten. Almost at our wits end we found it – a most unimposing place and no Japanese tour thronging to photograph it. In fact to our surprise, the current resident suddenly appeared – no not Romeo but who knows maybe a Capulette?

Verona was a surprising city with its pretty building its markets and the mobile market stands, its three wheeled eco cleaning utilities, and it’s pretty women. Dinner was a shared pizza in the shadow of the Roman Arena before going home with the prettiest woman.

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