I was going around the ancient city of Verona. I would say ancient since it has been inhabited since the time of the Romans and it is by no means ruins. What makes Verona special is that they managed to keep much of their history while at the same time continuously developing around it. The city was a major Roman city back then and it is to be expected that it would have various ancient Roman structures as well. One of these is the forum, which is basically the town square. In this case, the town square is Piazza della Erbe or Market Square.

You can say that the Piazza della Erbe still serves its original purpose since there is a lively market on the square. There are various stalls here. I would have thought that these stalls cater primarily to the tourist market but there is stuff on sale here which one would be needing at home. Since this is a market square, there are a lot of people here, you can say that this would be the center since all of the activity would have been happening here. The Piazza della Erbe is surrounded by a number of historical buildings including houses which still have frescoes on them.

Of particular note here is the presence of a fountain which is considered to the oldest structure in the piazza. The fountain features the Blessed Virgin Mary on top of the fountain. The fountain itself “only” dates back to the fourteenth century, but the statue, called the Madonna Verona, dates back to a thousand years older than the fountain itself. It is pretty incredible to imagine this since it may not be that obvious to the casual observer. I think this is emblematic of the care that Verona has given to their historical monuments. Having been in existence for so long, the culture of preservation has already been ingrained in the hearts.

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