History, opera and Shakespearean drama in Verona

"Verona still feels like its Shakespearean legacy,” says The Culture Trip, and it’s even possible to “recall the main moments of the timeless love story of Romeo and Juliet strolling around the streets.” While there’s no evidence that Shakespeare ever visited Verona, his famous tale has created a whole cult around the city, and pilgrims flock to the Casa di Giulietta to add their lovelorn pleas to the graffiti on the courtyard walls. And each year the town receives thousands of letters of heartache and unrequited love. “The tradition of sending letters to Juliet very likely goes back centuries,” writes Lulu Miller at NPR. “People started by leaving notes on a local landmark said to be Juliet’s tomb … by the 1990s, Verona was receiving so many letters, it created an official office to deal with it. And each letter -- the Juliet Club office gets more than 6,000 a year -- is answered by hand.”  

“Verona claims to have more Roman ruins than any Italian city other than Rome,” says Simon Brooke at The Telegraph. According to UNESSCO, Verona has preserved “a remarkable number of monuments from antiquity, the medieval and Renaissance periods, and represents an outstanding example of a military stronghold” -- and there’s a run-down of the best of them at Tripsavvy. Most famous of all is the enormous amphitheatre. “Built in the 1st century, the arena holds up to 25,000 spectators … since 1913 it has been the venue for a prestigious opera festival and a top setting for other theatrical performances.” To find out more about it, read Browsing Italy’s Verona opera tip sheet.

Verona is extremely walkable, notes Lori Keong at Marie Claire. “If you don’t want to miss the views, stroll by the old fortress bridge Ponte Pietra, survey the candy-coloured houses from the Castelvecchio Museum walls, and work-out your calves with a trek up to Lamberti Tower for a bird’s eye view of the city.” There’s a handy 48-hour itinerary in The Independent, while Olive Magazine offers a run-down of the best places to eat and drink in Verona.