Kaetrena's Shakespeare Review

I'm not sure if Shakespeare really visited Italy, and a brief search of resources quickly reveal that conjecture about Shakespeare's travels to Italy remain hotly debated. What's more intriguing about this debate is that in spite of it, tourism based on Shakespeare's plays has thrived in Italy (hence, in part, our trip). I enjoyed visiting the Campo di Ghetto Nuovo, the traditional Jewish neighborhood in Venice. The site calls forth scenes from The Merchant of Venice. We visited the neighborhood on a Saturday, so the small square was quiet - I sat down to survey the site and took a moment to give respect to the victims of the Holocaust, who are honored in a special plaque near a small Kosher Jewish hotel.

"Juliet's balcony" at Casa di Guilieta can be found in Verona, and the site shines as the definitive travel tourism experience during our trip. Interactive visitors' activities? Check. Focal point for appropriate Shakespeare work (Romeo & Juliet)? Check. Fee to enter the house and stand on the balcony? Check. Gift shop? Check! These characteristics aside, the venue and the gift shop offer a plethora of information about the play and the history of the house. The house also is a museum that houses 16th and 17th century artifacts. Moreover, the site inspires visitors' imagination - it not very difficult at all to imagine Juliette standing at her window as Romeo compares her to a rising sun.

In Rome at the Forum, the local guide showed us where Julius Caesar's remains were cremated (at the site of the Temple of Julius Caesar). While the site is not linked with Shakespeare's play and it is not the site where the emperor was publicly assassinated in 44 B.C., it is a testament to Caesar's accomplishments that visitors continue to leave fresh flowers in his memory.