Pozzo dell'Amore

This guide to the Pozzo dell'Amore in Verona finds a lesser-known tragedy in a dead-end alley behind the old church of San Marco, away from the city's famous balcony for star-crossed lovers. Sometime between 1509 and 1516, a soldier named Corrado di San Bonifazio pursued a noblewoman, Isabella Donati, who never once returned his feelings, until one February day beside this well curb ended in a dare neither of them backed down from. You'll hear how the courtyard's coin-tossing custom grew out of what happened next. Rest a hand on the same stone curb before you drop your coin through the ironwork.