ONCE UPON A TIME SHAKESPEARE IN VERONA: EVERYTHING ABOUT ROMEO AND JULIET
Welcome to Verona, also called the city of love, we will explain all the reasons in this article, hope you will find interesting and let’s start with some details.
This article wants to explain and show you the most authentic part of this drama that is still alive in this city. Shakespeare decided to set here his tragedy Romeo and Juliet, thanks to his work he made this corner of Italy famous around the world.
Every day a large number of tourists decide to visit Verona to see close up the setting of this eternal love story and the places of the ultimate romantic tragedy.
There is an unconventional and secret way to explore Verona, by walking in the street of the Scaliger city in a food and wine tours, where romantic and cultural stops are mixed to create a unique atmosphere to breath the fascinating city centre.
William Shakespeare is regarded as one of the greatest English poets as well as play-writers of all the time. Although known throughout the world, most of Shakespeare’s plays have been set in Italy.
At cinema Romeo and Juliet love story was celebrated in many movies and cultural events in general, in fact it inspired many famous directors like Franco Zeffirelli, who decided to offer the furniture and costumes used in his movie to Juliet’s house.
This tragedy has become also a collective moment at the end of 90s with the interpretation of the young Leonardo Di Caprio in the role of Romeo in Romeo + Juliet.
Recently another movie “Letter to Juliet”, tried to reveal a Veronese tradition of a private club, the real phenomenon of letter-writing to Shakespeare’s most famous romantic heroine, is a unique activity that only in Verona you can find.
The Juliet Club has been handling Juliet letters for many years, this unique phenomenon has made Verona the world-wide known as the city of love.
Addressed to “Juliet, Verona” thousands of letters arrive from all over the world and a group of volunteers replies to each and keeping alive this extraordinary epistolary tradition.
You can follow the traces of this legendary love around the city centre in a treasure hunt, important parts of Verona like, some city gates of the medieval city walls make us remember this drama, especially Romeo’s exile and duels.
The reasons why Shakespeare chose Verona dates back to its time, at that moment in 1600s the Italians were popularly known for their violence and also for their passion which easily mesmerised the English population. This charismatic component associated with the Italians was of great success at the time.
William Shakespeare also featured most of his plays in Italy, as it was a foreign country which provided a great foreign backdrop for them. He believed that this would make the plays more exotic and helped the audience to fully understand the true story behind them.
Shakespeare works have greatly marvelled many literature lovers all around the world, capturing the complete range of human emotions and mystery, they enjoy great popularity from people of all ages, both the young and the old ones.
HISTORICAL PLACES IN THE MOST FAMOUS LEGEND OF LOVE
Undoubtedly the first destination is the house of Juliet, visited by thousands of tourists every year.
This is the Stallo del Cappello, an old tower house dating back to c.1200-1300, according to the tradition this was the house of the Capulet Family, the family of Shakespeare’s heroine.
Damaged over the centuries, the house and the picturesque courtyard have been restored with a clever use of architectural and decorative elements inspired from the Middle Age.
Let me introduce the great place to celebrate the idea of eternal love, the house of Juliet, a medieval building, picturesquely restored by Antonio Avena around the mid ‘30s, that was allocated for temporary exhibitions in the recent past.
Everyone heard about Juliet’s house, but what about Romeo?
The building which stands near the Scaliger Tombs, is a typical middle age house and it is extremely well preserved, unfortunately it can not be visited inside because it is now a private property, but what is really important is the beautiful medieval facade of the 14th century that well recalls the romantic William Shakespeare’s love story.
Not all the visitors of Juliet’s balcony know where the tragedy end and this location is the convent of San Francesco al Corso that dates to the thirteenth century.
In 1935, Antonio Avena, director of the civic museums, opened to the public the so-called “Tomb of Juliet”.
This site, according to the legend, is where the sarcophagus holding the bodies of Romeo and Juliet was placed, and it naturally became a tourist attraction.
SHAKESPEARE IN VERONA
Beyond the myth of Romeo and Juliet there is a real city that every summer decide to celebrate Shakespeare masterpieces.
From June to September, Verona Summer Festival is back on stage in the Roman Theatre and in the Old Market Court, in this suggestive atmosphere Shakespeare dramas are still alive.
The city is the natural location for Shakespeare Festival, different parts of Verona for few moments become the stage for various plays and events related to the most famous dramatist of all the times.
A tradition that was perpetuated throughout the years, consolidated by the fact that Verona is a city that more than any other is the most identified with Shakespeare.
In fact, it appears in three plays of the English playwright: in the well known Romeo and Juliet but also in The Taming of the Shrew and in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Over the years, the only one in Italy and second in Europe only to that of Stratford-upon-Avon, the Shakespeare Festival has staged the best of the Italian theatre and renowned international artists and theatre companies.
that’s all for now, hope you enjoyed all these info about the City of Love. Let’s organise a trip in this romantic city, we wait for you…”
