Juliets Balcony

Juliet’s Balcony in Verona: The Fiction, the Queue, and Why Verona Is Worth It Anyway

The balcony at Casa di Giulietta on Via Cappello 23 in Verona is not the balcony from Romeo and Juliet. It was added to a medieval house in the 1930s to satisfy tourist expectations of a site that was already attracting visitors to a story that Shakespeare set in Verona but did not base on an actual balcony scene at an actual house. The bronze statue of Juliet in the courtyard below was installed in 1969. The tradition of touching her right breast for luck has been practised long enough that the bronze is worn bright gold in that specific spot.

The house is at Via Cappello 23, a short walk from the central Piazza delle Erbe. The courtyard is free to enter. The house interior (period furniture, reproductions, the costume from the Franco Zeffirelli 1968 film adaptation) costs approximately 6 euros. The balcony is accessible from the first floor of the house. The courtyard walls are covered in love notes left by visitors; the official position is that this is fine.

The queue for the balcony is real on summer weekends. It moves, but expect 20-40 minutes.

None of this should prevent you from going. The accumulated collective belief invested in a fictional location is its own interesting phenomenon, and Verona’s old city within the Roman walls is a genuinely beautiful place that rewards two full days independently of Shakespeare.

The Arena di Verona

The Roman amphitheatre in Piazza Bra at the centre of the city is the third-largest Roman amphitheatre in existence, with a seating capacity of approximately 22,000. It was built in the first century AD and is in excellent preservation. The opera season at the Arena runs from late June to early September and has been doing so since 1913. Full opera productions with international casts perform in the open air, with the stone seating lit by candles held by audience members at the start of each evening performance.

Tickets range from approximately 30-250 euros depending on seat and production. The cheaper seats are the upper stone tiers; bring a cushion, the stone is genuinely uncomfortable. The back rows are far from the stage and require binoculars. The arena can be visited during the day as a historical site for approximately 10 euros when no evening performance is scheduled.

Piazza delle Erbe and the Roman Grid

The old city of Verona is built on the Roman urban grid, with Piazza delle Erbe on the site of the former Roman forum. The piazza is surrounded by medieval and Renaissance buildings, including the Palazzo della Ragione (city hall from the 12th century), the Torre dei Lamberti (the tower is climbable for views, approximately 5 euros), and the Gardello Tower. The market in the piazza sells produce, souvenirs, and food in the mornings.

Walking 10 minutes north from Piazza delle Erbe reaches the Roman Theatre on the right bank of the Adige River, a first-century BC theatre cut into the hillside with an archaeological museum in the former convent above it. The view from the theatre back across the river to the city and the Arena is one of the better vantage points for the city.

Eating in Verona

Verona is in the Veneto, and the local cuisine is distinctly different from the pasta-focused cooking further south. Bigoli in salsa (thick pasta with anchovies and onion), risotto all’Amarone (risotto cooked with Amarone wine, which is expensive wine for a risotto and the result is correspondingly rich), and bollito misto (mixed boiled meats with various sauces) are the regional standards.

Amarone della Valpolicella is the prestige wine of the region: made from partially dried Corvina and Rondinella grapes in the hills west of Verona, with a minimum of two years’ ageing. A good bottle in a restaurant runs 40-80 euros. Valpolicella Ripasso, made by passing Valpolicella wine over the leftover grape skins from Amarone production, is a more accessible alternative at 15-30 euros and shares some of the richness.

The Osteria Sottoriva on the stone-vaulted riverside walkway near Ponte Pietra is a reliable lunch stop with good local wine and outdoor seating under the arches.

Getting to Verona

Verona Porta Nuova station is on the main Milan-Venice rail line. Journey times: 1.25 hours from Milan, 1.5 hours from Venice, 1 hour from Bologna. Frequent connections on both Trenitalia and Italo. The station is 20 minutes’ walk from the Arena; taxis and local buses cover the distance in 10 minutes.