Art Thou, Truly, Romeo?
Though the city has plenty else to recommend it as a sightseeing capital of the Veneto, the local tourism economy is underpinned by hordes of bus groups, Shakespearian pilgrims, and hopeless romantics. They come to wander the streets where Capulets and Montagues once fought, Romeo pined, and Juliet sighed from her (completely false) balcony.
Wealthy Veronese families called Capuleti and Montecchi did exist. Did they feud? Probably. That often was the way with local clans vying for city power in the Middle Ages. But did their two houses, so alike in dignity, ever harbor secret, star-crossed lovers? Did Romeo and Juliet really exist?
The story is based in an ancient legend; the core tragedy elements go back at least to the Greeks, and Shakespeare in fact included them again in a subplot of A Midsummer Night's Dream. To trace the Shakespeare version: The basic story was put into novella form (based on a medieval Sienese version) in 1476, then subsequently retold in 1524 by Veneto-born Luigi da Porto. He chose to set it in Verona in the years 1302 to 1304 during the reign of the Scaligeri, and renamed the young couple Romeo and Giulietta. The popular storia d'amore was translated into English, at which point Shakespeare obviously got hold of it and worked his own magic.
(I should also point out that there is no evidence whatsoever to support Tom Stoppard's lovely conjecture, in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love, that the courtship portion of the play was based on the Bard's own love affair.)
With the genius of Shakespeare's pen, the story turned into theatrical gold. Translated into dozens of languages and performed endlessly around the world (check out the number of Asian and eastern European tourists who flock to Juliet's House), this universal and timeless tale of pure love has forever since been set in the tempestuous days of this medieval city -- that version with Leo DiCaprio aside.
That said, Zeffirelli chose to film his classic 1968 interpretation in the tiny Tuscan town of Pienza, south of Siena. And, of course, the story emigrated to the New World and took up in the mean streets of New York as West Side Story.
