Have you ever wanted to explore Romeo and Juliet in Verona? Thought of as one of the most romantic cities in the world, its massive appeal of Romeo and Juliet has always seemed a bit dubious to me. Young lovers and doomed love; destroyed by fate or unlucky chance. Why would you want to model a relationship on that? We love real-life romance and the origins of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet lie in Italian folk tale set in the town of Verona. It is highly unlikely that Shakespeare ever visited but he did use Verona’s longstanding romantic reputation to excellent effect.
From the stylish Zeferelli film in 1968 to Baz Luhrmann’s update and the Romeo and Juliet 2013 modern take, the worlds of film and literature have been obsessed with the Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet play ever since.
Romeo and Juliet in Verona
In the heart of the Middle Ages, two factions struggled for power in northern and central Italy. The Guelphs supported the Pope while the Ghibellines were the party for imperial control. Families allied themselves fiercely to one or the other side. Added to the political mix was Verona’s reputation for hot summer weather; likely to ignite violence and passion, “the mad blood stirring”.
There’s no doubt Verona milks the whole Romeo and Juliet thing like crazy and fortunately, they manage the hordes of tourists well, maintaining a genuine charm, liveliness, and romance that is second to none, even in Italy!
The 13th-century ‘Casa di Giulietta’ did once belong to the dell Capello family but the echo in the name is probably all that connects this place to Juliet Capulet. What the tour guides now call ‘Romeo’s house’ was the medieval home of the Montecchi family. The swallow-tail battlements on its high walls were symbols of alliance with the emperor’s faction.
The spurious nature of Verona’s Romeo and Juliet history does not deter hundreds of thousands of tourists lining up each year to peer over the ‘Juliet’s balcony’, even though it was added in the 1930s. Milling crowds rub the right breast of the statue of Juliet for good luck or add graffiti and post-it notes to the walls.