Chasing Shakespeare in Italy

As Erin blogged yesterday, we spent the evening and this morning in Padua (aka Padova in Italian). As Shakespeare aficionados know, "Taming of the Shrew" is set in Padua, though there's no really mention of that or Shakespeare at all around town as far as we could tell.

What was all around town, however, we're many costumed performers who were in town for the European Folk Festival. It was fantastic to run into people wearing kilts, Heidi-like outfits, many bonnets, and other traditional folk outfits. We heard a few performances while we were eating dinner but didn't get to indulge too much in the Festival since we were only in town a few hours.

Today, we left the Folks behind after a quick visit to yet another important and
Impressive church (they're everywhere in Italy!). Off to Verona we went, following Shakespeare's footsteps to the land of not only "Two Gentlemen of Verona" but more famously "Romeo and Juliet."

Verona has cleverly capitalized on the love of Romeo and Juliet, and they've created an entire fictional home and balcony for Juliet. Of course we had to go see it, so we crammed into the tiny courtyard with a million other tourists to gaze upon the (fake) famous balcony that Romeo climbed in order to be with his Juliet. We did not pay the 5 euro to get inside the "capulet house", so we didn't get to take our own turn on the balcony. We probably could have recited more lines from the play than most of the people here, but we couldn't deal with the kitsch.

It really is amazing how a fictional couple can draw tourists to a fictional house, and entice them to spend money on Romeo and Juliet souvenirs. In addition to the house/museum/shops, Verona also has a volunteer "Guilietta" club that answers any letters sent to Juliet c/o Verona from around the world.

(there apparently were two families in Verona prior to Shakespeare's time with similar names to the Capulets and Montagues, but in no way did Shakespeare actually base his play on a true story of star crossed lovers from the families)

What Shakespeare doesn't teach you about Verona is that it's very large (a much larger city than we anticipated), nor that it would be packed with tourists and locals. I figured only nerdy Shakespeare fans like us would want to visit, but apparently it's quite a draw for Italians and other europeans. We didn't encounter too many Americans there, but tourists, tour groups and street performers galore! Its car-free old town, historic ruins and roman amphitheater, and charm certainly make it an appealing stop in northern Italy. Well worth a day trip from Venice (as was Padua, with it's large university scene, giant markets, and frescos by Giotto is the Scrovengi Chapel).