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Verona is the only city in Italy in which I’ve seen these marvellously stylish no-go signs.
I passed through Verona for a night on my way from Milan to Venice. My thinking was more cathedrals and ruins than Shakespeare. There is an enormous amphitheatre right in the middle of Verona and more medieval churches than I’ve ever seen in such a small perimeter. If only I retained statistics more readily. Byzantine ruins, Romanesque churches, Renaissance churches, it’s all there in fair Verona. Fair Verona, sound familiar? Yes, young lovers, Verona is the city of Romeo and Juliet. Take it from the woman who stayed in Hotel Capuleti, the ill-fated, star-crossed two lure more starry-eyed tourists to Verona than all the churches.

Check out Juliet’s balcony.Romantic, huh? Thousands of notes to Juliet were also pasted to the walls of the corridor leading to the courtyard. Touching.

Let it not be said that I am too hard-hearted to appreciate the romantic spirit. I just went to a very romantic wedding in Venice at which my eyes welled. The romance of Romeo and Juliet, however, escapes me. The young lovers, gormless, scheming, and perhaps a little witless, both die prematurely and unnecessarily. The immortality of their love seems like a feeble recompense for the fact that they didn’t actually get to live that love. Perhaps a few more no-go signs need to be erected around the Shakespearean sites of Verona.