Letters to Juliet

The 2010 movie "Letters to Juliet" starring Amanda Seyfried was set and filmed in Verona, Italy.  Verona is home to the Romeo and Juliet story.  Although they are fictional characters, Juliet is very much alive throughout Verona, especially at the famous Juliet's House.  I visited Verona with my daughter in March of 2025.  We stayed at Relais Balcone di Giulietta, which shares the Juliet courtyard with Juliet's House.  

Because of a train strike, we arrived in Verona late and missed our entrance time for our tickets to Juliet's House.  Thankfully, Juliet's House hadn't closed yet, and the workers allowed us to still use our tickets and tour the house, although time was limited before their doors were closed and the gate was locked.  They also allowed us to hide our suitcases behind their front desk, since we didn't have time to check into our hotel first.  We walked through the house, visiting the original Juliet statue that used to stand in the courtyard but was since moved inside due to over-use by tourists.  There is a tradition, as shared in the Letters to Juliet movie, that rubbing the right breast of Juliet will bring good luck in love.  So many tourists had rubbed Juliet's right breast that it wore a hole right through it!  You can see the hole when visiting Juliet's House.  The original Juliet statue has since been replaced by a new one, and tourists continue to rub her right breast. 

We went upstairs and found the red mailbox where letters to Juliet may be placed.  My daughter wrote a letter and put it inside the box.  In the movie people put their letters to Juliet between the bricks in the wall in the courtyard.  Ladies who called themselves "Juliet's Secretaries" picked up the letters and answered them.  This is the premise of the movie, because main character Sophie saw the secretaries collecting the letters and asked to help them.  She found a letter that had been pushed deep behind a brick fifty years earlier and had never been found.  She answered the letter.  The woman who had written the letter, Claire, came to find Juliet's Courtyard in Verona - and she found Sophie.  Sophie ended up going on a quest with Claire and her grandson Charlie to find Claire's true love whom she had written to Juliet about fifty years ago.  During the process of their search for Lorenzo, Sophie and Charlie fell in love.  I am not sure when the letters to Juliet in Juliet's House moved from being placed in the wall to being placed inside the red mailbox inside.  My daughter didn't receive a response to her letter, although my understanding is that the secretaries of Juliet are still very active in their service of answering these letters.

During our visit in 2025, we also stood on Juliet's balcony, which of course is meant to represent the balcony where Juliet stood and asked, "Oh Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?"  We went downstairs to the courtyard, which is free to visit between the hours of 9 am and 7 pm Tuesday through Sunday.  This is the same courtyard used for filming the movie Letters to Juliet.  The courtyard was completely packed with people.  My daughter finally managed to get a photo with Juliet, but was quickly replaced by another tourist.  Luckily, since we were staying at the Balcone di Giulietta, once the courtyard was closed at 7 p.m., we had it all to ourselves.  I had reserved a room that overlooked the balcony.  Our room was very nice and well worth the high cost of staying there, especially since we had as much time as we wanted with Juliet in her courtyard.  People were constantly stopping at the gate to take photos, many of them taking photos of us while we took photos with Juliet.  The hotel gave us a key to the gate so that we could get in and out during our stay there.  My advice to you when visiting Verona is to stay at the Balcone di Giulietta, and include the breakfast in your reservation.  They bring the breakfast to you in your room.  I thought the breakfast cost too much, so I didn't reserve it. But we were leaving on a train early in the morning and my hope to get breakfast at a nearby pastry shop was not realistic since most of them don't open until after we needed to leave.  Luckily we did find an open shop on Erbe Square and were able to eat breakfast, but I really wish that I'd included the Giulietta breakfast in my reservation.  Next time!  

We walked the streets of Verona, just like Sophie did in the movie.  We visited Erbe Square, which you also see in the movie.  We ate at an outdoor cafe.  We toured an open church.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Verona.  And yes, we thought a lot about Juliet.

Here are the official websites of the hotel and Juliet's House:

Balcone di Giulietta

Juliet's House Ticket Website

Tickets to Juliet's House are 22 euros.  The cost of a stay at Balcone di Giulietta depends on your choice of room and your date of visit.  While Juliet's House didn't actually house Juliet, it once belonged to the Dal Cappello family, similar to the Capulet name.  The Cappello family had a rivalry with the Montecchi family, thus inspiring Shakespeare's famous play Romeo and Juliet.  The story itself is completely fiction, as is Juliet's tie to the house.

Here is the scene of Sophie meeting Juliet's Secretaries in Juliet's courtyard:  Letters to Juliet in Verona

And here is the scene where Sophie meets Claire and Charlie:  Letters to Juliet in Verona, 2

This beginning scene of the movie shows Verona, including Piazza delle Erbe, as well as Juliet's courtyard:  Letters to Juliet in Verona, 3

The original Juliet statue, created by Nereo Constantini in 1968.  I took this photo in 2025

The statue is now housed inside the Casa di Giulietta, or Juliet's House, because visitors had rubbed a hole in her right breast.  There is a new statue in the courtyard now.  This photo of the original Juliet was taken in 2025

My daughter and I on Juliet's balcony, overlooking the courtyard, in March 2025

This shot from the movie shows Sophie sitting on a bench in Juliet's courtyard, looking at the wall of letters to Juliet.  Benches are no longer in the middle of Juliet's courtyard -- there wouldn't be room for them with all of the people walking around in the courtyard.

the mailbox for letters to Juliet

My daughter wrote Juliet a letter in 2025

My daughter on Juliet's balcony in 2025.  I took this photo through a window on the top floor of Juliet's House

view from the top floor window of the courtyard below in 2025

My daughter on Juliet's balcony in March of 2025

This shot from the movie shows someone on Juliet's balcony

Juliet's courtyard with the new bronze statue - the gate is closed at 7 p.m. and the courtyard is empty, except to guests of the hotel.  The wall on the right is where letters to Juliet were placed in the movie.  Letters are no longer placed there.  This photo was taken in 2025.

This shot from the movie shows women taping their letters to Juliet to the wall in the courtyard

My daughter with Juliet in 2025

Shot from the movie of tourists visiting Juliet's statue

This photo of Juliet's courtyard was taken in 2025

This shot from the movie shows Sophie sitting in Juliet's courtyard while a secretary of Juliet begins removing letters from the wall

Piazza delle Erbe at night - in the movie Sophie explores the Piazza during the day.  This photo was taken in March 2025.

This is a shot from the movie of Piazza delle Erbe

The Fontana di Madonna Verona in Erbe Square appears in the movie as well.  This photo of my daughter was taken in 2025

Fontana di Madonna Verona on Piazza delle Erbe at night, taken in March 2025

This shot from the movie is seen near the beginning of the movie, showing Fontana di Madonna Verona with the Gardello Tower in the background, and the lion on top of St. Mark's Column

This is the shot shown in the movie representing Sophie's arrival in Verona.  You can see Gardello Tower near the right of this photo, although it is shorter than the taller Lamberti Tower, which is also on Piazza delle Erbe.  Both appear to be touching in this photo.  That area is where Piazza delle Erbe is.

The gate to the courtyard of Juliet's House.  This gate is shown several times in the movie as Sophie and others come in and out of the courtyard.  At night the gate is locked, so visitors take photos of Juliet through the gate at all hours of the night.  I took this photo in 2025

This shot from the movie shows Sophie coming in through the gate to Juliet's Courtyard

Sophie with the gate to Juliet's courtyard behind her

The courtyard is empty before the gates open in the morning - this photo is from March 2025

This shot from the movie shows one of the secretaries of Juliet removing the letters from the wall

This view from the movie shows Sophie approaching Juliet's House for the first time.  

Walking out of Juliet's Courtyard and turning left, you see the entrance that the movie makes you think leads to the restaurant where the secretaries of Juliet write their letters.  Once they go through the doorway, the shooting location moves to a different spot, which is near the Adige River.  This photo was taken in 2025

This shot from the movie shows the secretary entering this doorway, with Sophie following behind her.  This is just outside of Juliet's courtyard, although not really where the restaurant was filmed.

In the movie, the secretary just walked out of Juliet's Courtyard, turned left and headed toward that doorway on the right

In the movie, this wall on the right is where letters are attached.  The Secretaries of Juliet pull the letters off this wall in the movie.  Now letters are placed inside Juliet's House in the red mailbox.  This photo was taken in March of 2025.

This shot from the movie shows one of the secretaries of Juliet leaving Juliet's Courtyard followed by Sophie.  The bronze Juliet statue is in the background

Claire, Charlie, and Sophie inside Juliet's courtyard in the movie

Claire and Charlie in Juliet's Courtyard

Claire is looking up at Juliet's balcony in this scene from the movie

This is a statue of Berto Barbarini on Piazza delle Erbe.  It was created by Novello Finotti, who also created the replacement bronze statue of Juliet in Juliet's Courtyard.  This statue was placed in 2004 to commemorate Veronese poet Berto Barbarini.  

I took this photo of Piazza delle Erbe in the morning, in March of 2025, before it was crowded with tourists

Piazza delle Erbe in 2025

The Colonna del Mercato was erected on Piazza delle Erbe in 1401.  This photo was taken in 2025.

The covered water fountain that appears in the movie, this photo was taken in March 2025

Shot from the movie showing the covered fountain in the background

The Fontana di Madonna Verona, taken in 2025, in the early morning hours before the square filled with people

St. Mark's Column was erected in 1523 as a sign of Verona's loyalty to Venice.  The Lion of St. Mark was added in 1524.  This photo was taken in 2025.

This shot from the movie shows the Column of St. Mark, as well as the Gardello Tower.

The Column of St. Mark and the Gardello Tower in 2025

I took this photo in the early morning hours in March of 2025.  I was standing on the piazza near the St. Mark's Column, looking back in the direction of Juliet's House.

The Fontana di Madonna Verona, the Gardello Tower, and the Column of St. Mark are all visible in this photo from my visit in March 2025

This covered fountain is on the southern end of Piazza delle Erbe and is shown behind Sophie in the movie.  It is close to the Statua Civilta Italica, which is also shown in the movie

The Statua Civilta Italica, a monument dedicated to civilians who were killed or injured during WWI bombing on Piazza delle Erbe.  The monument is placed close to where the bomb hit in 1915.  This monument appears behind Sophie in the movie as she leaves the square to walk to her hotel.  I took this photo in March of 2025.

This clip from the movie shows the Civilta Italica behind Sophie as she's walking from the Piazza delle Erbe to her hotel in Verona.

Another view of the Statua Civilta Italica behind Sophie

Sophie walks from Piazza delle Erbe past the Statua Civilta Italica down Via Pelliccial to Scalette S. Marco, where she turns and sees Victor standing on a balcony.  The building used for the apartment is actually on Vicolo S. Marco in Foro, although I'm not sure if the apartment can be accessed by the public.  The hotel sign was added as a prop for the movie.

The sites for the movie are all pretty close together within Verona, although the restaurant where the secretaries of Juliet wrote their letters is not as close to Juliet's House as it appears in the movie - it is actually over by the Adige River.

When visiting Juliet's House, Erbe Square, and other filming locations, keep in mind that traffic is limited. When we arrived at the train station in Verona, we hired a taxi to take us to our hotel, but he stopped short of the hotel because cars can't drive down the road leading to Juliet's House.  He dropped us off and pointed us in the right direction, but we had to use google maps to navigate to where the hotel was.  When we left the next morning to go back to the train station, we were able to find a place marked "taxi" on Erbe Square to hire another taxi to take us back to the train station.  The train station is far enough away from Juliet's House and Erbe Square that a taxi is necessary to travel between the two.

Incidentally, while we were in Verona we ate at a lovely outdoor cafe located at Via Stella 34.  It is within easy walking distance of Erbe Square.  The food was delicious and the service was excellent.  The atmosphere at night could not have been better!