Verona, Italy

For the latest in our historical holiday series, Paul explores the romance of Verona, a veritable Mecca for lovers across the world.

- Paul Edmondson

It was my late father who first mentioned Verona to me, while we were on a family holiday at nearby Lake Garda. “It’s famous for its opera,” he said, “and for Romeo and Juliet.” I was 11, and already those two lovers had a mythical reality entirely of their own. But we never made the trip.

In fact, I did not visit Verona until 23 years later, just after my father had died. By then I had taught and seen Romeo and Juliet many times, and I’d even played Valentine in Shakespeare’s other Veronese play, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. The Italian city has now become a delightful place for me to visit and even to work.

‘Fair Verona’, as it’s referred to in the opening lines of Romeo and Juliet, makes real for me an imagined Shakespearian location. The claims of the city’s Roman, medieval, and Renaissance influences are all around you. When I think of the city, I recall the moment I was jogging through it early one summer morning. There was some mist, and I was exploring Verona for the first time. I happened to run through the Piazza Dei Signori, and there was Dante’s statue peering down at me. I felt as if I was being glanced at by an entire culture.