Casa di Giulietta – Verona, Italy

“Juliet wrote me back?!”

For I never saw true beauty till this night – Romeo

First things first, I can be a hopeless romantic sometimes, all the sugary novels I read and romanticized movies I watched sure did what they’re supposed to do to people’s brain. Of course the most famous love story of all time, peeked my attention too, I found something magical in the town called Verona. Shakespeare actually wrote three novels based in Verona, even though it’s not confirmed he has actually been to the place, I’m sure he found it too, the magical part. So, keeping that in mind, I absolutely love the thought of me writing in my journal, sipping on a “insert expensive wine here” and looking out at beautiful, big monuments. Not too much later I took a plane to get to Italy and booked a room close to the center of Verona. Verona is most known for its romantic scenery, historical buildings and of course the several famous hotspots like the amphitheater, ‘Arena di Verona’, which I’ll talk about in another post. After I spent a short night at the hotel I went to Juliet’s notorious balcony, “Casa de Giulietta.” Rumor has is that the woman whom Shakespeare was inspired by to write the story, actually lived in the old house, that was before they build the balcony though. The place is very, very crowed and you can see couples holding hands everywhere you go, not the greatest place to go while being single, I agree.

 
When I entered the tunnel at the entrance of the garden I noticed thousands of little papers, stickers and handwritten notes stuck to the walls. So many people have come there, being in love, sharing that moment, sigh, if you ignore the massive crowd dragging around their selfie-sticks it’s really quite romantic. In the garden there’s a bronze statue resembling Juliet, an old saying claims that touching the statue’s right breast brings luck to your love life, so hey, maybe not the worst place for singles to go, after all. There’s one movie I watched that stood out to me in particular and made me go the mile, it’s called “Letters to Juliet”, starring Amanda Seyfried and Christopher Egan. The storyline is cute and simple and I fell in love with the idea of people writing letters to “Juliet and her helpers” and actually getting one back. So, this is where things get really excited, well, at least for a dork, like me. I looked up online to see if the movie was based on a true story or if they just made it up, but I couldn’t find any information about it. So, I really wanted to find it out, took the benefit of the doubt and wrote a letter.


 
When I got into Juliet’s house, I first found multiple books, displaying the story of Romeo and Juliet, their bed from the tale and clothes people wore back in the day, it was like a little museum. I was pleasantly surprised to find little mailboxes spread around the venue, meant for visitors to put their letters in. At this time I seriously started to wonder if I would actually get a letter back. I can’t really remember how much time had passed, but I was so startled when I saw a handwritten envelope in my mail, shipped from Italy. The letter I got was so sweet and personal and me being a writer, I was so in awe about how amazing this is. Like, someone actually took the time to write me this very kind letter and send it all the way to The Netherlands, that’s crazy awesome, right?! Crazy romantic too. Let me know if you would like to know any tips of getting a reply by Juliet or any other advice on visiting Verona, I’m always happy to share and make your stay just as wonderful as mine.