Juliet’s tomb in Verona

Juliet’s Tomb is kept in a cell under the cloister of the former convent of San Francesco al Corso, dating back to 1230. The convent now houses the Museum of Frescoes. The main building displays frescoes from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance coming from various palaces of Verona. In the church are exposed large paintings dated between 1500 and 1700. In the basement there is a deposit of Roman amphorae (I century) discovered thanks to the excavations carried out in the area.

According to the legend the convent once preserved the body of Juliet but in 1500 the clergymen, tired of the pilgrimage of which was the subject, removed the grave and transformed it into a drinking trough.

MY EXPERIENCE 
I visited Juliet’s tomb the same day in which I visited the house (first Sunday of the month) so I paid only 1€. The museum of the frescoes is not very big and we visited quite quickly. There aren’t masterpieces, but some of the frescoes are nice. The Guarienti room (where it is possible to celebrate wedding) is very pretty. I didn’t appreciate much the painting in the church though.

The courtyard is very pleasant and romantic with its central well, plants and vines.

At the end of the courtyard there are the stairs leading to the grave, actually an empty red marble sarcophagus. The crypt itself is evocative, but there is nothing (apart from thousands of writings made by young lovers).

Did you know that… In the nineteenth century Charles Dickens visited the place and wrote something about it on his travel diary Pictures of Italy (1846):

So, I went off, with a guide, to an old, old garden, once belonging to an old, old, convent, I suppose; and being admitted, at a shattered gate, by a bright-eyed woman who was washing clothes, went down some walks where fresh plants and young flowers were prettily growing among fragments of old wall, and ivy-coloured mounds; and was shown a little tank, or water-trough, which the bright-eyed woman called “La tomba di Giulietta la sfortunàta” (the tomb of Juliet the unfortunated). With the best disposition in the world to believe, I could do no more than believe that the bright-eyed woman believed. […] It was a pleasure, rather than a disappointment, that Juliet’s resting place was forgotten. […] it is better for Juliet to lie out of the track of tourists, and to have no visitors but such as come to graves in spring-rain, and sweet air, and sunshine.

PLUS

• Nice the Guarienti Room
• Beautiful courtyard
• Not very crowded (during low season)
• I found very nice the bronze artwork of Sergio Pasetto, which narrates Romeo and Juliet’s story.

MINUS

• Empty tomb
• No touching experience

WARNING