Inside Verona’s Due Torri
Juliet has Verona’s most famous balcony.
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Juliet → have → balcony
Maria Callas had another.
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Callas → have → another
Between a basement circus and sublime soured-butter pasta, Douglas Blyde discovers a grand hotel overdue for a second act.
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Blyde → sour → act
At Due Torri, the opera begins with a room change.
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opera → begin → change
Having found our original accommodation wanting, we are moved to the Maria Callas Suite.
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we → find → Suite
Giorgia Gazzuola, who oversees sales and marketing and has worked here for fifteen years, explains that Callas would greet her adoring fans from its balcony.
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Callas → oversee → balcony
Had I encountered a similar reception that morning, she wonders, with a smile suggesting she has identified another diva in residence.
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she → encounter → residence
It is an exquisitely diplomatic way of describing a demanding guest.
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It → describe → guest
Unlike Callas, however, my public has yet to assemble.
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public → have → Callas
Callas is a promising patron saint for a hotel in Verona, where the Arena gives summer evenings their soundtrack.
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Arena → give → soundtrack
Our suite offers more space and rather more character.
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suite → offer → space
Some tables downstairs stand on clawed paws; here, strange faces with lizard-like mouths rise towards those seated above them, as though the antiques would like to join the conversation.
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antiques → stand → conversation
The bathrobes have unusually high collars.
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bathrobes → have → collars
There is no obligation to sing, although the wardrobe appears prepared for it.
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wardrobe → be → it
One floor down, beyond a blood-red chandelier, lies the S. Anastasia Presidential Suite, a 100-square-metre residence occupying its own private floor.
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Suite → lie → floor
Giorgia mentions a couple who have taken it for three weeks to celebrate the wife’s eightieth birthday.
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who → mention → birthday
There is something rather cheering about reaching 80 and deciding that a single evening of festivities would be woefully inadequate.
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evening → be → festivities
Due Torri is a member of The Leading Hotels of the World, sharing a collection with Ritz Paris and Villa d’Este.
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Torri → share → Paris
Such company encourages expectations of effortless grand-hotel assurance.
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company → encourage → assurance
Instead, a display of vapes beside check-in strikes a curiously petrol-station note.
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display → strike → note
The opening impression is hesitant, the hotel’s considerable pleasures less immediately apparent.
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pleasures → open → ?
They reveal themselves gradually, as you wander through the building with somebody who knows where to look.
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who → reveal → somebody
A palazzo that rewards wandering
The location is magnificent.
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location → reward → wandering
Immediately beside Due Torri, Sant’Anastasia gives remarkably little away.
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Sant’Anastasia → give → little
Beyond its largely bare brick façade is Verona’s largest church, divided by twelve columns of red Veronese marble.
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church → divide → marble
Pisanello’s St George and the Princess waits above the Pellegrini Chapel.
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George → wait → Chapel
Work began around 1290; the exterior’s incompleteness makes the richness within all the more startling.
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richness → begin → 1290
Even the holy-water basins require sculpted human figures to support them.
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basins → require → them
The hotel’s anthropomorphic furniture has distinguished neighbours.
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furniture → distinguish → neighbours
Around us, Verona supplies narrow streets, handsome squares and sufficient visual distraction to compromise forward progress.
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Verona → supply → progress
Walking on the right helps keep the pedestrian current moving.
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current → walk → right
Stopping dead to admire something requires a little more planning.
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Stopping → stop → planning
The hotel occupies the fourteenth-century Palazzo dell’Aquila, an inn since 1674.
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hotel → occupy → 1674
Giorgia tells us that horses were once accommodated in the lobby, although subsequent guests required less stabling.
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guests → tell → stabling
Thirteen-year-old Mozart stayed with his father in 1769-70, Leopold recording their accommodation as ‘ai due Torri’.
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Leopold → stay → Torri
Later came the grander, French-accented Grand Hotel Imperiale aux Deux Tours.
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Hotel → come → ?
In 1867, Garibaldi addressed the Veronese from its balcony and was honoured with an eight-course dinner.
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Garibaldi → address → dinner
The building’s history also contains darker chapters: three ministries of Mussolini’s Republic of Salò occupied it during the Second World War.
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ministries → contain → War
Its next great reinvention came on New Year’s Eve 1958, when Enrico Wallner reopened the hotel, commissioning much of the exuberant decoration which survives today.
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which → come → decoration
In the extended foyer, ammonites fossilised into the floor tiles reward looking down.
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ammonites → fossilise → tiles
…and 68 more, not listed.
The Aporia
