Today on Monday Mysteries we ponder how Chris and I wound up with a musical accompanionment on an elevator in Verona. We’d arrived in Verona in the late afternoon that day, having spent many hours taking a combination of buses (2), flights (1), and trains (1) to travel from Tübingen to Verona. We’d checked into our favorite little hotel, where we’ve often stayed over the last few years, and used the elevator to go up to the room to dump our little pieces of luggage in the room before heading out to find something to eat.

After roaming around for a while in the heat that evening (temps during the day had been in the mid-to-high 90ºs F/~35ºC and it wasn’t that much cooler after dinner), we sat in Piazza Bra for a while to enjoy a view of L’Arena, the Roman amphitheater there.  Then, we headed back to the hotel and walked over to the elevator to return to our room.  I pushed the button.

The door opened and immediately music started playing as we stepped into the elevator.

Weird. It had never done that before, including a few hours earlier when we’d taken the luggage up.

I looked at Chris and he looked at me, both of us puzzled. As the doors started to close, we glanced back over at hotel clerk who was seated at his desk in the lobby — he was not paying attention to anything in our direction and clearly not doing anything that was causing the music. The doors closed and the music continued. In fact, it got louder.

It was at that moment we both realized that the music was coming from Chris’ pocket.  It turned out that the cellphone that we now use for our Italian SIM card is set for a song ringtone, a musical moment that Chris and I had never heard before. You see, we rarely use that phone these days, now that we live in Germany, and normally people send text us messages on that phone, never calling.  But a friend in Verona was calling that night — instead of texting — in order to coordinate plans for the weekend, and his call triggered that unexpected melodic accompaniment to the elevator ride.

But it was all so strange: the music started just as I pushed the button and the doors opened, making it seem like my actions had started the music by pushing the button. A very surreal moment until we figured it out.

Now, I’d blame our initial confusion on jet lag after the trip … but of course, there is no time difference between Germany and Italy. O course, we went from cooler weather to hot just in a few hours – does that count as jet lag? I’m sure it must … 😉

Anyway, it was a fun start to a fun little getaway to Italy last week. I’m still sorting photos from the trip, but here’s a peek at L’Arena (the Roman Amphitheatre) and the surrounding Piazza Bra area. It’s the where we found a bench and enjoyed  the view … just before heading back inside and encountering our unexpectedly musical elevator experience.

Enjoy.