Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Juliet's house and love messages

This place is surely the most visited spot in town. It's nonetheless than Juliet's house (and balcony, yes). Shakespeare's drama Romeo and Juliet was set in Verona. Some hundreds meters from here there is Romeo's home (which is private. Wow, can you imagine saying I live in Romeo's house?!?!).
This little courtyard is incessantly crowded. Can you see the bronze statue of Juliet, a bit darkened by the leaves above her? People queue to go and touch Juliet's right breast, in fact it is so polished that it shines. The gesture is meant to bring good luck in love!

What you see on the left is the final part of the arched corridor that opens on Via Cappello. It may be five meters long and the walls are covered by felt tip names and hearts and dates... Being the walls a total thick graffiti, people started attaching notes to it. Worst thing is: they stick them with bubble gums! EEwwh! A permanent problem for the town council: how cope with this...issue. I think once in a while they paint them white and it all starts again...

6 comments:

Jill said...

I've seen this on the Travel Channel. The notes thing is interesting. While not exactly esthetic, it is romantic.

Virginia said...

A lovely site and they need to rid the area of bubble gum , how gross. I look forward to more lovely photos from you town.
V

Ann said...

Look at all those tourists!

Ming the Merciless said...

There is a statue inside Harvard University that has the same situation as your Juliet statue. Visiters come and rub his left foot for good luck so it's shiny compared to the rest of the statue. :-)

Rob said...

I see the crowds are still there. I enjoyed the architecture in this courtyard between tourist shifts. Oh wait, I guess I was one of those tourists. Ah well, we enjoyed your city and hope to return.

Unknown said...

I agree with Virginia. As well as gum, there's too much graffiti too spoils it really. If you are from the Uk looking to stay in Verona or Venice, I would recommend lowcostholidays, Late Rooms or lastminute. I do hope to head back to northern Italy again soon, as I have yet to experience Venice or Milan.

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