romeo + giulietta.

on the way to venice, i stopped in verona. famous for being the setting of shakespeare's tragedy, verona is a veritable romeo and juliet theme park. they have virtually created a tourist industry over two characters that never actually existed. credit is definitely deserved, because it is certainly convincing!

despite the tourist traps, verona is beautiful. quiet, casual, romantic and not overun with tourists, wandering the streets you feel that this is what italy was supposed to look like. i know that the name brings people to the city, but what they fall for is the city itself. unlike rome or florence, there are actually whole streets, and whole squares that have no one in them. a local choir was singing hymns in the main square, and everyone was actually listening. i sat at a cafe for over an hour, and never felt like someone was waiting for my table. a children's skit was being presented to parents and tourists alike. it was incredibly refreshing.

romance was certainly in the air. my cappuccino even came with a heart made out of foam on the top. but all of these potentially overdone tactics actually worked, paired with the lovely setting.

guilty as charged, i fell for ALL the tourist traps. i actually paid the entrance fee to go into 'giulietta's house' and onto 'giulietta's balcony'. and i am not the only one. in the passage leading to her balcony, hundreds of people have left messages of love - both on the wall, and on sticky notes attached with gum. inside the house, people have written to juliet asking love advice. there is even a giulietta grave that tourists can visit! verona tourism must be sitting in their piles of money, laughing as i write this.

during my 24 hours there, i could not get this song out of my head. anyone who goes to red pine will know exactly which one i am talking about! i thought i would leave you with a few versus from my favourite indigo girls song, romeo and juliet:

A love struck Romeo sings the streets a serenade
He's laying everybody low
He's got a love song
that he made
He finds a convenient streetlight and he steps
out of the shade
And says something like
"You and me,
babe, how about it?"

Juliet says, "Hey, it's
Romeo!
You nearly gave me a heart attack"
Yeah well,
he's underneath the window now she's singing,
"Hey, la, my boyfriend's back
You shouldn't
come around here singing up to people like that"
Oh anyway
whatcha gonna do about it?

Juliet
The dice were
loaded from the start
And I bet and you exploded into my
heart
And I forgit, I forget the movie song
Now when
you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong
Julie...