Casa di Giulietta

This guide to the Casa di Giulietta in Verona opens in 1935, when the city's museum director, Antonio Avena, told two visiting Hollywood set designers a convenient story about a run-down house on Via Cappello. It traces how Shakespeare invented Juliet from nothing, borrowing only the surname Capulet from the family who once owned this thirteenth-century townhouse, and follows the city's own plan, dating back to a 1905 purchase, to turn a plausible old building into an essential stop for visitors. Stand in the courtyard before you look up, and notice how many people around you already believe every word of it.