For stony limits cannot hold love in

Verona, Italy - Verona is for lovers, or so William Shakespeare thought, for he set two of his most heart-wrenching love stories here. His first - Two Gentlemen of Verona - is a comedy, where all the friends and lovers find their happiness in the end (after only one attempted rape - that part is hilarious - but never mind).

The more famous play is Romeo & Juliet, and we all know what happens to them. Apparently Shakespeare based his celebrated tragedy on two 14th-century Veronese families, the Montecchi and the Capelli. It is not clear if the families actually feuded, and Romeo and Juliet certainly are fictitious characters. Nonetheless, centuries later, Verona is still a sort of pilgrimage destination for the starry-eyed.

They all seek out the 12th-cenutury house of the Dal Cappello family, now better known as the Casa di Guilietta. The lovestruck come to scrawl messages of amore on the walls; while the lovelorn are invited to touch the right breast of the Juliet statue for better luck. (Let me tell you, nobody is shy about copping a feel from this bronze beauty.)

The keystone in the courtyard does bear an engraving of the Dal Cappello coat-of-arms, so that much is true: the Shakespearean family did live here. But everything else about this place was invented or added to make the place look like a theatrical set. Even the famous balcony is a 20th-century addition.

But who am I to ruin it for the romantics? Shakespeare aside, Verona is incredibly picturesque, its Roman ruins and Romanesque architecture vying for attention alongside the chic boutiques and sidewalk cafés that fill the medieval center. The Roman arena - the third largest amphitheater in the world - is amazingly intact; it hosts an annual opera festival, and so has heard the likes of Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carreras. And every evening, the entire town comes out to stroll the streets in the finest tradition of the passegiatto. Lovers promenading arm in arm through the cobble stone streets, with nary a destination in mind... what's more romantic than that?