Today on Monday Mysteries I want to touch briefly on a couple of minor items here in Verona that have been intriguing, but lack enough information to warrant a full-fledged blog post all on their own.
The bride, the carriage and the tilted church
Bridge arriving in a horse-drawn carriage, Verona
We’re currently living down the street from the Sant’ Anastasia Church, and one morning as I was doing some errands I happened by a bridge alighting from a horse-drawn carriage. It’s not very typical to see a horse-drawn carriage around here except for the ones which take tourists around (and even that’s not that common a sight).
What was also interesting to me was that all the people on the edges of the plaza (who are mostly hidden behind the horse to the right, and off-camera to the left) were tourists, and not connected with the wedding. There were one or two official photographers, in addition to all the onlookers like me, snapping away with our cell phones. Nothing like having dozens of strangers taking your photo on your wedding day. I was really struck by how there were seemingly no relatives/friends/etc waiting to greet her outside the church when she arrived, so I’m not sure if this was a real wedding, or just a woman in a wedding dress posing for some other purpose. I guess that we’ll never know; I wasn’t curious enough to follow her through the doorway to see whether she walked into a regular wedding ceremony or not. 
Of course, another thing I’m also not sure about is why the church doors look so tilted in this image. In person they don’t look that off-kilter. So, there are several unanswered little issues all in this one photo of the bride, the carriage, and the tilted church.
The salesman who wouldn’t
Back at the beginning of the month when we first arrived in Verona it was unseasonably cold. I hadn’t packed gloves, so I decided to by a cheap pair from a stand that sits outside the Coin department store.
Near Coin department store, Verona
The Coin department store is on the right; there’s a stand selling scarfs, hats and gloves under the big umbrella in front of the store.
Anyway, Chris and I stopped there early on and said that I wanted to buy a pair of gloves. I found a pair that fit, and asked how much. The guy said they were 6 euros each, but he wasn’t the real owner of the stall. The owner of the stall, he said, had just stepped away for a few minutes, so if we came back later I would be able to buy them.
Odd, but OK. So we went back a few hours later — and the same guy was there, with the same story. That was on our general path while walking around over the first few days, and we passed by that stall many times. And we always saw the same guy there. Which made us wonder if he just didn’t feel like selling anything: was it us? Was it some secret code? Did he not want to generate any income at the beginning of the month?
Anyway, many days later we did actually see a new guy at the stall, along with our original guy. However, at that point the weather had turned warmer, and I no longer needed/wanted any gloves. So we’ll never know if that other guy would actually sell them – a mystery that will remain unsolved unless the weather turns cold again.
BTW, behind where I was standing is a bookstore that used to carry local guidebooks about Verona. The bookstore is still there — but there was nary a guidebook in sight. Odd. Have electronic app guidebooks really taken over completely here in Verona? Another minor mystery waiting to be solved, I guess.
The Dangling Figure Fresco
Unusual fresco remnant, Verona
Chris spotted this remnant of a somewhat trompe-l’œl style fresco on the front of a building on a side street in Verona. The top figures all seem to be dangling on the edge of the building’s (painted) ledge. Very unusual. The design of the building is also somewhat asymmetrical; as the windows aren’t positioned in line with the archway below. Since it looks like a regular residential building now, there’s no sign on it. Yet another minor mystery to ponder here on today’s Monday Mystery post.