Remembering Romeo and Juliet in Verona

Our first stop in Italy was Verona, made famous by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. But apart from being the setting of a most-tragic love story, Verona was a Roman city with many ruins that have been preserved, most notably, The Arena, an enormous amphitheater that is almost like a smaller version of The Colosseum in Rome.

Our guided tour took us around the centre of the city, which used to be an old Roman military settlement. We walked around the maze of elegant squares with Roman structures such as monuments, arches, city gate ruins, fountains, and medieval churches. Among them were Piazza delle Erbe (home of the forum in Roman times), Torre dei Lamberti (a clock tower with 236 steps to the top), Palazzo Babierri (town hall), Piazza Bra (the city’s largest square), Piazza dei Signori, the Arco dei Gavi, Porta Borsari (remains of a Roman gate), Porta Leoni, the Verona Cathedral, the Basilica of San Zeno Maggiore (Verona’s patron saint), the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the Santa Maria Antica Church, the Santa Anastasia Church, the San Georgetta Chapel, and the Pellegrini Chapel.

The bell tower of the Basilica of San Zeno is mentioned in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (Canto 18 of Purgatory). It has a rose window decorated as the Rota Fortunae (Wheel of Fortune), a concept in ancient and medieval philosophy referring to the capricious nature of Fate wherein the goddess Fortuna spins the wheel at random, changing the positions of those in it. In life, according to this, sometimes, we are at the top, and sometimes at the bottom.

We saw a statue of Dante at one of the piazzas. I learned that he lived in Verona when he was exiled from Florence. I told my husband that I did a presentation of Dante's Inferno in literature class when I was in senior year high school and that I am still in awe of his imagination.

Despite the proliferation of historic sites, the most crowded tourist attraction, especially among the young, was the Casa di Giulietta (Juliet’s House) on Via Capello. The house does not actually bear any historical significance, nor is it in any way connected with William Shakespeare, for as we are aware, Romeo and Juliet are just fictional characters.

Nevertheless, it has been declared “The House of Juliet” and from what I heard, is always packed with love-struck teenagers taking pictures at the balcony, supposedly the setting of the famous love scene, as well as the courtyard where Juliet’s statue stands.

Of course, my husband and I joined the frenzy. I had to pay four euros to get inside the house and climb up the balcony (and hubby opted to stay outside to be my photographer). Then, I posed there a la Juliet-waiting-for-her-Romeo while my husband took a picture of me from the courtyard. There was really nothing to see inside the house, except for a few Renaissance frescoes rescued from demolished palaces, “Juliet’s bed” (which was a prop from the 1968 film adaptation), and some medieval costumes.

Back at the courtyard, we posed beside Juliet’s statue. Our photographer told us it is tradition to rub Juliet’s left breast to obtain luck in love, so we got another picture taken with both of us touching her breast. How funny is that!

There is also another tradition of writing love messages to Juliet and sticking the notes on the walls leading to the courtyard (wasn’t there a movie called Letters to Juliet set in Verona)? My husband and I each wrote a note and then realized we didn’t have anything to glue them onto the wall. I remembered I still had one piece of chewing gum in my purse, so we figured that would do. As I was putting the gum in my mouth, a young couple approached me and asked if they could have half of my chewed gum so they could also post their letters on the wall. What was I to say? As yucky as it sounded, I shared the gum with them. Oh well, things you do for love…or romantic fanaticism...

I wondered if there was a house for Romeo, so I asked a local. He pointed to a house a couple of streets away – at No. 4 Via Scaligere – but no one else was there. He said that it has been designated as "Romeo’s House," thus, the sign on the wall, but it is really a private residence. There were some "love letter" graffiti on its walls, though. I wondered what the house occupants thought about that. We did not feel the need to add anything to the love messages, so we walked on to explore the rest of Verona.

Photo Credits:

viator.com, Claconvr (Wikipedia), nagibmoretti (Trip Advisor), Vasily V (Trip Advisor), arrivalguides.com, Fabio Becchelli (Wikimedia Commons), Lo Scaligero (Wikipedia), Didier Descouens (Wikipedia), saradf (Trip Advisor), pri.org, theculturetrip.com, oriana.italy (Flicker), keepcalmandwander.com