• Travelsignposts Home
  • Country Guides
  • City Guides
  • River Cruises
  • Europe Photos
  • About Us

Italy Travel

  • Home
  • Trip Planner
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Map
  • Weather
  • Site Map
  • Destinations
  • Shopping
  • Sightseeing
  • Food
  • Getting around
  • Useful facts
  • News & Events
You are here: Home / Sightseeing / Romeo and Juliet – The lovers die but their romance lives on!

Romeo and Juliet – The lovers die but their romance lives on!

By Helen Page 2 Comments

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Casa di Giulietta – Romeo and Juliet – An Immortal Love Story:

Casa di Giulietta

Juliet’s Balcony, Verona

Centuries after Shakespeare wrote his famous tragic romance Romeo and Juliet, more than half a million people still pack into the courtyard of Casa di Giulietta each year to see the famous Juliet balcony.  It was from this balcony that Juliet was supposed to have spoken her famous lines in Shakespeare’s play and Juliet’s balcony is easily the most popular tourist attraction in Verona.

Casa di Giulietta

A short passageway, covered with graffiti, leads to the small courtyard of Casa di Giulietta.  Juliet’s House, at No. 23 Via Cappello, is a residence of medieval origin.  This house, together with a cluster of surrounding buildings, had been the official property of the wealthy Dal Cappello family since the 1200s. From this derives the name Capuleti, the noble house to which Juliet belongs.  Even today, a coat of arms depicting a hat (cappello), carved in stone, adorns the house.

Casa di Giulietta has been a place of pilgrimage for Shakespeare fans, travellers and young lovers.  The young in particular come to Verona to pledge their love to each other.  On the covered passageway to Juliet’s house are thousands of scrawled love messages and in an act of sealing their love, young lovers also place colourful padlocks on an iron gate next to the giftshop.

Casa di Giulietta

Juliet’s Courtyard

From the courtyard, you can see the famous balcony where the young star-crossed lovers were supposed to have met secretly.  During the summer season, the courtyard is packed with visitors, all wanting to take a look at the Juliet balcony and pose for photos. If you don’t like crowds, plan on a winter visit when it is much quieter and more serene.

Although this stone balcony was not a feature of the original Capuleti residence and is believed to been a part of an antique sarcophagus, nothing gets in the way of a good romance story.  Young couples are happy to pay the entrance fee to The House of Juliet Museum so that they can pose on the balcony and have their Romeo and Juliet moment.

But it is not just the young who are drawn here by this love story, luminaries such as Charles Dickens have also visited.  In his travelogue, Pictures from Italy, Dickens describes in detail his visit to the House of the Capulets, which by that time had been turned into a “miserable little inn”.  Even though it is fiction, those who have read and love Shakespeare’s play will find it quite moving standing in the courtyard and sharing the view of this famous balcony with Shakespeare lovers from the world over.

Casa di Giulietta

Touching Juliet for Good Fortune

Bestowing Good Fortune

A beautiful bronze statue of Juliet, created by the Veronese sculptor Nereo Constantini in 1972, stands elegantly in the courtyard.  Her right breast is worn bare by the number of visitors cupping their hands over it.  It is believed that by touching the right breast of Juliet’s statue, good fortune will be bestowed upon you. Never one to fore-go the opportunity for some extra good luck, I too had a go.  A group of giggly schoolboys no doubt had other naughty thoughts on their minds when they touched Juliet’s breast.

Through the immortal love story of Romeo and Juliet, still the staple of high school English classes today and translated into music, the visual arts, dance, cinema and opera, Shakespeare has given Verona perennial fame.

See Travel Signposts Casa di Giulietta Photos Here

Map of Verona

Things to do in Verona

Click here to get a free PDF of this post

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Sightseeing Tagged With: casa di giulietta, juliet's balcony, juliets house, romeo and juliet, verona juliet, verona photos

avatar

About Helen Page

Helen Page is a prolific blogger and ardent traveller; she runs Travelsignposts with her professional writer and photographer husband Tony.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You can also find us on

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Latest Additions

  • Giant Street Art adds spice to Rome’s Creative Scene
  • How to make Orecchiette pasta – The Favourite Ears of Puglia
  • Dinner in the Lair of a Giant Octopus!
  • Grandstand View of Il Campo, Siena
  • A Unique Tableware Find in Venice

Plan and Book Your Trip


eNews and Updates

feedburner Sign up now to get emailed news as well as other site updates!

Get the Guerrilla Travel Photography ebook here now!
City Guides
Country Guides
River Cruises

Who is behind Travelsignposts?

Helen and Tony Page at Singapore Changi Airport

We're Helen and Tony Page, and we love travelling - lucky as we've been doing it for the last few decades!

Tony has long been a professional photographer and writer, but Helen now writes most of the posts and takes a lot of photos herself!

Travelsignposts is our main travel planning site, but we've just launched Travelsignposts China and Tony also runs the Travelsignposts Photo and Guerrilla Travel Photography web sites, as well as publishing the Take Better Digital Photos and Guerrilla Travel Photography eBooks.

Read more about Helen and Tony or contact them.

Other Countries

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • Czech Republic
  • Devon & Cornwall
  • England
  • Estonia
  • Europe (General)
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Ireland
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Portugal
  • Scotland
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • Turkey
  • Ukraine

Resources

  • Take Better Digital Photos eBook Take Better Digital Photos eBook
  • Take Better Digital Photos Free eCourse
  • Travel Signposts Photo – our main travel photography site
  • Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook

Copyright © 2022 ·Lifestyle Pro Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in

Get a free PDF of this post!
Just enter your email address below and we'll send it to you immediately.

Please enter your Email Address