Lake Garda & Around - The Italian Lakes - page 373

ROMEO & JULIET IN VERONA

Shakespeare had no idea what he'd start when he set his (heavily derivative) tale of star-crossed lovers in Verona,
but the city has seized the commercial possibilities with both hands - everything from osterie and hotels to em-
broidered kitchen aprons get the R&J branding. While the play's depiction of feuding families has genuine
provenance, the lead characters themselves are fictional. Undaunted, in the 1930s the authorities settled on a
house in Via Cappello (think Capulet) as Juliet's and added a 14th-century-style balcony and a bronze statue of
our heroine. You can squeeze through the crowds at this Casa di Giulietta MAP GOOGLE MAP (Juliet's
House; 045 803 43 03; Via Cappello 23; adult/reduced €6/4.50 or with VeronaCard; 8.30am-7.30pm
Tue-Sun, 1.30-7.30pm Mon) onto the balcony itself, or see the circus from the square below, a spot framed by a
slew of scribbled love graffiti that doesn't compare well to the bard's sonnets.

Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore
( www.chieseverona.it ; Piazza San Zeno; adult/child €2.50/free, combined Verona church ticket €6 or with VeronaCard;
8.30am-6pm Tue-Sat, 12.30-6pm Sun Mar-Oct, 10am-1pm & 1.30-5pm Tue-Sat, 12.30-5pm Sun Nov-Feb) A
masterpiece of Romanesque architecture, the striped brick and stone basilica was built in
honour of the city's patron saint. Enter through the flower-filled cloister into the nave, a
vast space lined with 12th- to 15th-century frescoes, including Mary Magdalene modestly
covered in her curtain of golden hair. Painstaking restoration has revived Mantegna's
1457-59 Majesty of the Virgin polyptych altarpiece, painted with such astonishing per-
spective and convincing textures that you actually believe there are garlands of fresh fruit
hanging behind the Madonna's throne.
An eerie crypt is located beneath the main altar, with faces carved into medieval capitals
and St Zeno's corpse glowing in a transparent sarcophagus.

BASILICA

Chiesa di San Fermo
MAP GOOGLE MAP

CHURCH

( www.chieseverona.it ; Stradone San Fermo; combined Verona church ticket/single entry €6/2.50; 10am-1pm &
1.30-5pm Tue-Sat, 1-5pm Sun) Chiesa di San Fermo is actually two churches in one: Franciscan
monks raised the 13th-century Gothic church right over an original 11th-century
Romanesque structure. Inside the main Gothic church, you'll notice a magnificent timber
carena di nave, a ceiling reminiscent of an upturned boat's hull. In the right transept are
14th-century frescoes, including some fragments depicting episodes in the life of St Fran-
cis. Stairs from the cloister lead underground to the spare but atmospheric Romanesque
church below.

Piazza delle Erbe

HISTORICAL SITE