Week Fourteen: Fair Verona

Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. 

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Do with their death bury their parents' strife.

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,

And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,

Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;

The which if you with patient ears attend,

what here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. 

-William Shakespeare

And it was with much anticipation that I took my last trip, the weekend before finals, to Verona - the setting of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. I left Florence with my friend, Christina. 

Two train rides, a bag of potato chips and a kinder egg later, we successfully arrived in the beautiful city. There's an interesting type of energy that Verona possesses. It's a very quaint and romantic city, but still has a buzz to it. There's so much modernity mixed with antiquity. It's simply gorgeous. 

Here's the Verona arena. 

A church

A clocktower.

A beautiful piazza

The area around the arena.

And Juliet's balcony. 

People leave love letters to Juliet from all over, on her wall.

So I did, too.

It's said that if you touch the right breast of her statue, you'll have good luck and your love will be blessed. 

This wall is covered with lovers' hearts and names, stories of past visits and desires for future love. Stories of broken hearts are scrawled in every color of pen imaginable. It's just... beautiful. 

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet."

The city was everything imaginable. It was such a quaint, relaxing place, yet so vibrant and alive. I can't give it a better adjective than simply beautiful. I loved it. 

♥ Em