The Italian Job Day 1 - Verona

This Pearl Jam weekend has us in Verona on Saturday night and Milan on Sunday night, so we are heading to to Verona once I finish work on friday.

we arrive at Schiphol and the flight is delayed, so we have plenty time to fill up on some food to fuel the evening's festivities. Pearl Jam are playing at the Arena di Verona....







So the beautiful venue coupled with the small city, coupled with the number of fans attending all 5 of the Italian dates of the tour means that the party is going to kick off tonight.

When we finally arrive at the Train Station in Verona by bus from the Airport, we kind of use gut instinct to head to the centre of town. I have been working to hard, and Mowgli's been catching up on sleep, so we are not very well prepared logistically for this event. The arena is large, and Verona is small, so we make a good job(via a few fellow Pearl jam fans), of finding Piazza Bra. From here it's not difficult to find the largest group of drinking Pearl jam fans. This is centred around the Norwegian's who are following the band round all the dates in a tour bus.

There's lots of friends from previous Pearl jam events, and it really feels like a family affair. As a result it takes us around 30 seconds to have one of these in our hands:





The beer is sold in litres which is just a recipe for disaster. Luckily we arrive late.. around 11... so we avoid drinking too much... but by 4am... the bar closes and we have had in excess of 8 pints of beer. Someone very annoyingly suggests that we head onto another bar... it's annoying, because we accept... so we eventually find ourselves wandering around Piazza Bra at 6am... trying to find a taxi...I'm shattered. It's been a very long week at work... and an all night beer session was not exactly what we needed to prepare for the weekend... but wooo hooo it was fun. All the fans together, super excited about the concert and loving our Pearl Jam summer.

In the drunken wanderings.... I lost Mowgli. I've managed to negotiate a spare bed in a 4 star hotel with some other fans.....


I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.