In Fair Verona

"...where we lay our scene," we visit Juliet's house. (A building I was made aware of by the movie “Letters to Juliet.”) There's graffiti all along the archway leading to her famous balcony - brightly colored hearts around pairs of names, over and over again. They don't let you put letters in the wall any more, but there's a mailbox where you can leave them and receive an answer. I'm not sure that Juliet is the wisest source of romantic advice, but as it is one of the greatest love stories of all time there's definitely a romantic allure. 

Juliet’s mailbox. 

Juliet’s other mailbox.

As the guy behind me is demonstrating, you’re supposed to squeeze Juliet’s breast for luck in love, and the statue shines from all the tourists who eagerly follow this tradition. I feel like you can tell tourists to do pretty much anything for ‘luck’/custom and they’ll do it. (Hey, tourist! It’s lucky to throw all of your money into the fountain!) This may be the secret of European tourism.

Lots of couples get pictures on Juliet’s balcony, but my favorite was this guy:

Later we wandered the winding cobblestone streets, looking at the wrought-iron balconies and flowerboxes above, and bought fresh, ripe red strawberries from a street vendor in the market in the piazza.

Earlier that morning we stopped in the town of Sirmione, right on Lake Garda, the largest of the Italian lakes. It was full of other tourists, but fun to wander around the streets and the edge of the clear blue lake as we ate gelato. You can’t escape the town without gelato –there’s at least one gelateria on each street, usually more. 

 Lunch right on the lake.