Shakespeare's Juliet lives! And she's mending broken hearts.
About 100 lovesick letters arrive weekly at the official Verona 'home' of Shakespeare's most tragic heroine, Juliet.
Giulio Tamassia, director of the Juliet Club, reads a Juliet letter.
Tony Vellela
Verona, Italy
• A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
Juliet lives! Despite William Shakespeare’s best efforts, Romeo’s star-crossed sweetheart has survived, at least in the minds of lovesick women and girls all over the world. For more than 70 years, when others have failed them, desperate souls have penned “Dear Juliet” letters that arrive regularly at the official Verona “home” of the Bard’s fairest and most tragic heroine.
The first few trickled in following the release of director George Cukor’s 1936 film “Romeo and Juliet.” After World War II, they took off, with some addressed simply to “Juliet – Verona.” City officials finally decided to accept and embrace this phenomenon, and in 1972 formed Club di Giulietta – The Juliet Club – where volunteers answer every plaintive missive, now averaging about 100 a week.
It’s all supervised by retired bakery owner Giulio Tamassia, who has made this his life’s work since 1993. “It is very important that every letter receives an answer,” he explains. “For many, they have no one else to talk to. This is about love. This is serious.”
From teenagers wrestling with their parents’ warning about a boyfriend they don’t approve of to older women caught up in a seemingly hopeless affair, a devastating rejection, or a troubled marriage, the queries come, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Chinese, Russian, French, and, of course, Italian.
University students, Chinese restaurant workers, NATO officers, and city employees (with assistance from a psychologist or a priest, when writers have an especially serious problem), offer guidance rather than specific plans. When second letters arrive with new information, they, too, receive a careful reply. These “Secretary to Juliet” workers respond from the Juliet site at 23 Via Cappello, where all things Romeo and Juliet are exhibited, and visitors attach their own personal, handwritten messages to the courtyard walls. For the clueless seeking a romantic surprise for their beloveds – as if a visit to this enchanted Verona enclave weren’t enough – a chance to add their own love notes to the wall can’t be beat.