Believe it or not, this the the REAL balcony, the ACTUAL place where Juliet REALLY said ‘Wherefore art thou Romeo?’
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for love. It’s what the world needs now. Love, sweet love; it’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.
Expressing love is also important. I’m regularly accused of not doing it often enough. I believe less is more in that department, but maybe I sometimes overplay the strong, silent type role.
What I don’t need to see is others publicly declaring their love in pathetically unoriginal ways. For far too many visitors, that seems to be what a stay in Verona is all about.
Lovers may no longer walk together, two kids in the park, carve initials in the bark (me and Alice) but instead they scrawl names on a wall with a felt pen, fix padlocks together with several thousand others and visit the legendary house and tomb of Juliet.
Verona tourism plays the Romeo and Juliet card for all it’s worth. Why wouldn’t they? If I offered euthanasia services in Verona I’d name the business ‘The Apothecary’.
One Romeo Burger with the lot – I’m in the mood to go silly tonight.
Who knows what might happen when we come back to this hotel?
You understand we don’t want heavy vehicles driving over what’s left of Juliet.
Unfortunately being in love makes people do stupid things.
Juliet’s tomb, inscribed with messages of love from idiots.
No doubt in desperation, by the Casa di Giulietta Verona authorities have provided a scribbling wall…
Hey, I’ve got a great idea…let’s write our names here.
…a convenient rack to hang locks on…
I could take a selfie and send it to her.
….and (apparently) a designated wall for the most disgusting of love declarations.
How romantic can you get? We both chew the same piece of gum and stick it on the wall.
Hello, young lovers, wherever you are…it’s all been grossly overdone before, to the point that your gesture is meaningless and kitschy.
To those who have scrawled their messages of undying affection on Juliet’s tomb, I hope your fairytale relationship lasts as long as a Hollywood marriage.
If you skipped your boring Shakespeare classes, you may have missed the sad fact that Romeo and Juliet ends unhappily. Verona is also the setting for The Taming of the Shrew – possibly not what you’d regard as a modern love story. Google it.
There’s more to Verona than Romeo and Juliet; more about the other attractions in a following post.
Just a taste…
Richard Tulloch's LIFE ON THE ROAD 
Verona is a gorgeous place…except that hideous balcony area. I think the chewing gum wall is disgusting and I would cheerfully throw all the stupid locks in the nearest river, and that includes the ones on the bridges in Paris and anywhere else they may be. Thankfully, they are now banned on the Ponte Vecchio and those that turn up are quickly chopped off and thrown away. How anyone considers this vandalism to be romantic is beyond me. Plant a rose bush in your garden, put a lock on your own fence, but leave public property alone.
I accept that I am in the minority here, but I don’t care.
I’m not sure we really are a minority, Debra. Let’s start a movement!
Sent from my iPhone
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Not in a minority at all – I hate them!
That balcony was apparently added to the building in 1936 as an attempt to cash in on the Shakespeare connection. I hated all of that love locks/chewing gum thing but I did like the statue of Juliet.
I’m sure most of those who are clever enough to follow your great blog have already joined this movement!
Hear, hear on the subject of lock-graffiti. So far haven’t seen any in Madrid…so far. I also hate piles of stones brought from everywhere. I went to where Thoreau’s cabin was on Walden Pond and there was a truck-load of gravel left by misguided well-wishers. At least gravel is easier to remove than padlocks.
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Just heard that lovers have gone too far in Paris: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27758940?ocid=socialflow_facebook