When visiting family in Northern Italy, we visited Verona. I was thrilled because my mom gave me a few of her old Italy pictures, one of which was the balcony at Casa de Giulietta - Juliet's home.
Shakespeare's novel and the centuries old home are the center of tourism in this Italian city. Although the home is considered a "mythical location," according to a recent Los Angeles Times article, Verona's tourism is centered around the doomed romance and its setting.
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| Juliet's balcony! |
Two of my friends visited Verona when I was in Florence and they put it wonderfully. "Verona is the Disney World of Italy." It is immaculately clean and everything geared towards tourists in the city has a Romeo & Juliet tie in. Signs point you in the direction of Casa de Giulietta and plenty of souvenirs are available.
I wanted to see the much buzzed about letters to Juliet on the courtyard walls as the film but was surprised to learn that the city encouraged "emails to Juliet" instead.
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| Notes to Juliet in the courtyard entry! |
I came across a Los Angeles Times article the other day that reported on additional changes made to Casa de Giulietta. "Cashing in on 'Juliet's balcony' in Italy" informs us that in addition to paying to enter the former Capello family home, visitors to the legendary balcony courtyard will now have to cough up an entrance fee.
The article reports that monetizing the balcony courtyard will help maintain the attraction and allow Verona to make ends meeting as the Italian recession continues.
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| Verona town square |
An interesting feature coming to the courtyard is that instead of tacking messages to Juliet on walls via gum or other sticky substances, a video monitor for mobile messages will be added.
I am definitely interested to see how these changes pan out, do you think this will help improve Verona?
Additional source: http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-cashing-in-on-juliet--balcony-italy-20130521,0,5494280.story
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