Shakespeare’s tale of the star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, is famous the world over. The story unfolds in Verona, a prosperous town in Italy that makes for a very picturesque setting. Nowadays, visitors flock in their thousands to Verona to see Juliet’s tomb and house. Yet there is more to this tale than meets the eye. We recently went on the trail of Romeo and Juliet in Verona and were intrigued by the myths surrounding the iconic lovers. Let’s delve into the mysteries and try to separate fact from fiction…
Romeo and Juliet in Verona
The first thing to bear in mind is that William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is based on a legend, and Shakespeare himself never visited Verona despite setting several of his plays here. His inspiration for Romeo and Juliet was an ancient Italian legend, upon which the writer Masuccio Salernitano based a novella in 1476. The tale was subsequently retold by Luigi da Porto in 1524 with Verona as the setting and the main characters named as Romeo and Juliet. The Capulet and Montague families in Shakespeare’s version were genuine Veronese aristocrats mentioned in Dante’s Divine Comedy.   Juliet’s House – Casa di Giulietta
However from here on, the willing suspension of disbelief is called for, as Juliet’s House belonged to the Cappello family…It’s certainly a similar sounding name to Capulet and this resemblance was seized upon by enterprising locals who proclaimed ...