Dear Juliet...a Trip to Verona

Before school started back up I had a chance to visit the lovely city of Verona, which is about 2 hours out of Milano by train. There are 2 main attractions in the city of Verona:
1. It hold the oldest Roman ruins outside of Rome (more specifically a huge Roman Arena)
2. It is where Shakespere’s Romeo and Juliet is set (which is based on a TRUE STORY!)
We visited the Roman arena first and it was pretty amazing and gave a great view of the city. There were even “Roman” soldiers to take pictures with outside. Since I’ve never been to Rome it was really cool to stand in a stadium that had been standing for over 2000 years!
During Christmas there is also a HUGE nativity star that arches from the top of the arena to the ground below. We came the day before epiphany do there was lots of hustle and bustle around the star to get ready for the celebration.
Then it was off to see Juliet’s home…I’m not sure if I’m the only one but I had no idea that Romeo and Juliet was based on a true story! Believe me, Verona totally capitalizes on this, which unfortunately take s a lot of the romance and intrigue out of it. Although it was interesting to stand on the balcony where Romeo’s famous speech occurred…
Legend has it that if you write Juliet a letter and stick it on the wall that she will answer it. Of course I wrote a little note to her, I’ll keep you updated on whether I hear anything back ;-)