Verona ... Valpolicella Wine Region

Music has a profound impact on a situation.  Take for example my recent taxi trip from my hotel to the train station in Milan.  It started as a fairly typical business trip morning - drag out of bed, pack up, make sure I don't forget the phone charger, get in the cab and panic until I don't miss my next mode of transport ...

But what happened instead was a glider ride through the city, floating through the roundabouts, mood altered by the crisp classical music the cabbie was playing a tad bit louder than politically correct.  I don't know who it was ... I pretend Vivaldi or some other Italian Boroque artist I should be more informed about ... but with his fingers tapping out the piano on his knee and the warm wind in my face it was divine and I should have thanked him.

People were literally walking in step to the beat, the street lights changed on cue, and I suddenly realized how life's serendipity is so strong ... the peace I felt in my heart as I headed to the Italian City of Love - Verona was a part of my destiny.

Perhaps a glutinous move, but since I was in Milan and I had recently been looking at a bottle of Amarone that was a gift of a dear friend in Chicago, I decided that one extra day on the road wouldn't hurt anyone and booked the one hour train ride to Verona from Milan.

The destination was more so Valpolicella - the classic wine region in the foothills of the Alps north of town.  Aside from their Classico and Superior varietals, they are most known for what I consider one of the three kings of wine - Amarone (others Barolo and Bordeaux).

It has a dear place in my heart, as it was really the first red wine that pulled me into the artform.  It is made using a unique technique of letting the grapes dry before they are pressed and produces a warm, round, fruity red wine that will get you over any bad break up.

I spent my days in Verona wondering the winding streets lined with text book balconies full of succulents and vines, stopping to taste the local food and sit by the river to take it all in.  I hiked up a mountain to view the top of town, and hired a driver to take me out into the hills of the wine region to visit a family on this wine farm and watch the sunset.

Seriously serendipitous.  Life's bounty abounds.