Why is Romeo and Juliet Set in Verona?

Romeo and Juliet made Verona famous, turning a lovely but unremarkable town in the shadow of Venice in northeast Italy into one of the world s most romantic destinations. Many visitors wonder why Shakespeare chose this setting to lay the scene of his most popular play. The answer is quite simple: he kept to the source material. William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is based on Italian writer Luigi da Porta's A Recently Re-Discovered Story of Two Noble Lovers with Their Pitiful Death Occurred at the Time of Bartolomeo Della Scala.

Da Porta set his play in 14th century Verona, writing about two young nobles living in neighboring castles who fall in love but are torn apart by their warring families, to tragic effect. Da Porta wrote the original story after having his own heartbroken, and Shakespeare discovered and reinterpreted his own version just a few decades later keeping the devastating conclusion and setting the same.

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