Resonate in verona and on how has it won him there with their own it is undoubtedly a city full of history and monuments a beautiful city full of architectural a natural wonders that. It all but it was above all shakespeare who helped to make this city famous we are all a family that i took that. When giovanni heads through the city its almost always in the service of juliet. And fair verona theres only a fine line between. Reality and fantasy history and legend. In this dynamic city its easy to imagine the tragedy of romeo and juliet caught on folded any moment all over again. With their own a is simply beautiful i was born here and ive spent my whole life in verona. Im very connected to the place and actually. I think for own it is so attractive to tourists because it reflects so much from so many areas from roman times to the middle ages to the renaissance. Giovanni his juliets chief secretary. Sometimes she passes by romeos house but generally doesnt stop because its privately owned. Today shes heading to the house of juliet casa de juliet. And it attracts thousands of visitors a day a place of pilgrimage for those who believe in or hope for love. Like others with the house of juliet is the symbolic spot that gave rise to the legend whether its a true story a legend or fiction is practically irrelevant because the legend of romeo and juliet truly lives on the ball. As does the hope of happiness. Its believed that touching the breast of juliet statue brings luck and love will to be this is one of all these rituals that are part of what we could call our collective craziness. But its beautiful because its about love and emotions so a little craziness is ok of it not going to for you. Is good this is. The crazy scenes in the house of juliet are all part of a days work for giovanni. As is collecting juliets mail. Some of them but i found that its only come here at least once a week to empty this mailbox and its always full of all of us at the manor house without a focus even if today there arent so many letters because the box was emptied yesterday our genomes dont. Think were going to know what that they have to. This is serious business. Every day the letters are answered each one by hand. The volunteers at the club to juliet or juliet club such as Christine Espanol o. Are known as juliets secretaries each letter is given thoughtful consideration. Like this one. That i do get. Im rushing to ask you for advice a person in my life is very close to my heart but im not sure hes happy with me and weve been together for 4 years but our lation ship is not going anywhere they should i look for a new love or try to find happiness in this relationship maybe its not love anymore. Help me or you to me to. Every day some 20 secretaries answer dozens of letters they come from all over the world. Around 10000. 00 letters a year are delivered to the juliet club some are addressed to simply to juliet in verona the mail carriers know where to bring them but juliet secretaries have a harder job they have to deal sensitively with the contents of the letters. Can grow more your money this writer is still young she has her entire life ahead of her so i advise her to be patient and believe in love im sure true love will come to her and she will find a fiance that were going. To see it is a bit was that a novel letter that i read earlier is very long and i will have to think about it in peace and quiet. Not that its not always easy. You have to think carefully about your response that youve been. Juliet secretaries work for free whenever they can carve out time from their daily lives. Only giovanni the club manager is almost always here. For support also comes from baal in tears visiting purana from around the world who take time during their vacations to help the love lorn. I know that you have on a has been doing this for more than 30 years. She and the other secretaries share the same passion your career the winter no longer what i really believe in love. I got that i started to do the story of romeo and juliet is very close to my heart. Because im from verona. I see it as a privilege to help out at the club and answer the letters from lovers and address their problems like i could. See young people waste makes me feel good. Meantime came your i feel good when i answer the letters sent to be in a quandary. And that continues after the end of their working day. Giovanna organizes many events reading so award ceremonies all in the name of juliet. And christina whos a University Student helps out when she can. Theres always a lot to discuss. Especially now as theyre organizing an event to award the dear juliet prizes to the best letter writers of the past year. Thats in addition to her own as writing for love prize which honors the best romantic novels. I. Do ivana has devoted her career to ensuring that the story of romeo and juliet lives on. At home her daughter is waiting shes hungry the if shes had a long day at school. As they prepare supper theres time to unwind after their busy days. Oh. Oh. And giovanni a deal so much with love at the office its only natural that its a topic at home as well. Because i think about it because. If you talk so much about emotions and love something remains. From the start when you read all these love stories from all over the world you see that ultimately love is the same all over the world. That enriches you even though your everyday life might be different. For some and thats a good thing even. If i begin. Giovanna knows that she has taken on an unusual task oh i was reading about other peoples love lives and their problems affairs clandestine relationships separations its not always easy. But it could almost be called a family tradition. And. My father founded the club did you. See it coming than me when i was around 20 he started doing it on behalf of the city of her own or when i. Started off as a hobby for him. But it became a passion that the whole family shared. There right from the beginning it was a passion. And he did it in his free time to. What i want and in some point he asked me to help him translate letters. That way. That was how the juliet club started. Had since become something of a legend itself. Countless helpers from around the world have volunteered their time as juliet secretaries. One of them is victoria menton. The hamburg native came to verona 6 months ago as an au pair since then shes been writing shes glad the city supports the club for example with the 10000. 00 euros worth of postage stamps it uses every year. Victoria also signs her answers with juliet. And it was the unsureness of where. Its really a very nice feeling to sign a letter with juliets name yeah because you know that she was a wonderful woman a strong woman who gave everything for love for this difficult love and she would die for her love and give everything. Its beautiful. Yeah. Thats what it was strange to not sign my own name to write your juliet. And your yeah. But i got used to it and now i really really like it because all these people are writing to a good friend and theyre juliet and they want to get an answer from juliet. Victoria says that many of the letters can be quickly answered with advice or encouragement but sometimes there are letters that affect her deeply and are not easy to respond to then she consults with the other secretaries. Such letters can call for a degree of psychological insight. Well and if so just because they are going to have to negotiate a phone and i was very moved by the story of a woman who came from russia to italy for love. And had her she got married and then found out that this man was cheating on her and had another girlfriend or wife and even a child. These are difficult situations. Its not only im not very old and havent had these kinds of experiences luckily and hopefully never will. So all i can do is try to imagine myself in their situations. And then i answer. How often they dont even really need a solution to their problems but just a good friend who writes back and says everything will work out. Romeo and juliet came from feuding families and verona that actually existed. Implacable enemies their feud would do and their children. 2. Whats known as juliets tomb in the monastery of san fran cesco of course has been drawing tourists for more than 2 centuries. In the region for pain. In the 1930 s. This was the tourist attraction here just to out of. The house of julie it hadnt been renovated yet so the tourists came here they said. John is that there are records of illustrious visitors from as long ago as the 18th and 19th centuries like good to who mention juliets to money his famous italian journey or byron or dickens. Or by. The kings. I could do something that you think bad check it out in the 30s there was a custodian here at 3 soleimani who on his own initiative started collecting the letters the visitors left on the sick office. And he started answering the letters and signed them juliet secretary its not the 1st of all. Could you get the full saves that no one knows of juliet is really buried here but the legend has been around for centuries thats a quote. These 3 women have just arrived and brought up and theyre heading off to explore the town theyve only just met for the 1st time one is from rome the 2nd from pisa and the 3rd is bosnian and lives in milan and. They have one thing in common each wrote a letter to juliet that was singled out by the club and theyre here to pick up an award barbara today is proud to be a recipient it would appear i was but you know this is my 1st visit to verona i wrote my letter to juliet from home in the traditional way with pen and paper. Now that im here in verona im quite excited its funny a nice surprise of the b. B. C. Was that. It was a surprise for alessandro paloma to her better was more of a cry for help. Was somewhat unpredictable but it was a very particular moment sometimes there are things you wouldnt even tell your best friends or other people who are close to you its just you know if we see it thats when writing helps you to organize your thoughts you know didnt even see it in writing to someone who is experienced such a beautiful bit tragic love story that you feel close to this girl you know that youve got. Christina espanol o. Is at home getting ready for the awards event where shes due to appear in the role of juliet. When the me the Transformation Starts when i do my hair i did that. With my mates 3 braids and pin them up. Just what i mean i only when it is head to when im juliet the transformation begins with the head. Christina leads a double life of sorts as christina shes a normal student but she loves being juliet both as a Club Secretary and as the living figure juliet at the club special events. The 3 letter writers have arrived at the house of juliet and are somewhat taken aback by the attention. Entered juliet when christina appears in the role Everyone Wants a photo with her. To be in. The Prize Winners arent the only ones captivated. With its marvelous its about her but at such a collection of attractive women finally its the womens turn and recently a lot of the Prize Winners have been men and he complained about that b. J. The. Last year one lottery ended with the water hes a prisoner of his spirit i dont know what of course he was unlucky in love. Me some have enough and they dont. So we got the Award Ceremony the prize winning letters are read aloud. To the audience listen spellbound so the eloquent accounts of romance tragedy longing and love start. In tokyo. She truly it is just i am writing to you because im experiencing this crazy love that takes your breath away and drives you out of your mind i love to my limits and was loved in a way that cant be described in words i experience love that ive only known from novels but now this great love story is over and has left nothing behind but ruins. The excerpts from the letter written by the sandra from rome of course theres much more in the letter. The 3 prizes and the 3 proud Prize Winners. Know that it was a very Emotional Experience a bit like being exposed in front of the audience but it was beautiful and odd that for yourself im proud that it was really beautiful im happy that life has brought me here and im proud of what i wrote. Was it one of those beneath the. Lever you dear Juliet Juliet shares juliet carried. The letters that have been posted to verona for more than 75 years now all begin with the same words no matter what the language and he started it all with the play published in 1597. This post of shakespeare was put up about 20 years ago it was financed by the city administration. But the idea came from the clued you juliet and my father julio thomas you know who commissioned a very nice sculptor sergio. They wanted to thank the bard for the enormous gift he gave to the city of. God. For the secretarys work at the club often entails dealing with visits from the media today theres a crew here from italian television. Love romance longing and the realization that these peelings are universal all over the world. Cakes and worry from kate a stray or just the right answer i live in london but ive wanted to do this for a couple years so School Holidays for a week and i came up where have you no letters arrive in many different languages read their authors a range in age from 14 to 70. The secretaries always try to respond in the writers language and as they search for the right words sometimes need to look no farther than their own experiences in this same community more than 2 years ago i read some letters that described an unrequited love i recognize myself for most stories because back then i was in a similar situation more starting back then aha this girl is experiencing the same thing that i am i got even though it was at once moving. Yet strange to read about an experience that was also happening to me a bailiffs that im going to. Look at all. I know. I think you know its not my fault. For several decades giovanna has devoted herself to this heartfelt work. Its generated a huge amount of publicity for ana the setting of the worlds most famous love story. It continues to cast its spell on giovanni to this day. I lets that they love more of it but its only that their own is the city of a lot of power excellence the story of romeo and juliet is known everywhere. Because it has the tourists who come here from all over the world say theres something very special about verona but that there is a romantic atmosphere here. And thats all thanks to shakespeare who chose verona as the setting for romeo and juliet youve got a copy of it on a i. And how has love treated her. I do you know dear im in a pretty complicated relationship at the moment its hard to talk about it. 2 and a half 1000000 tourists visit verona every year. Most of them associate the city with one thing. Pure romance. And sometimes a marriage proposal. You see if you just want everything to get. Better rico had this well planned. For the mazy the quake in music ive been intending to ask her for months. Some unity we allow on valentines day weve come here to this wonderful spot with a view of the entire city that it would be much younus from her and today i wanted to propose. As well but of course the. I mean. This is my city and its romeo and juliet are i mean this is just the most romantic city there is. Romeo and juliet arguably the most famous pair of lovers at least in world literature. Was their story invented or based on true events. Ultimately who could say that it really matters. They were systematically robbed by the nazis. And after the war there were no signs of compensation. For collectors agata and answer so mine. Today researchers are searching for the missing words of art the process for the descendants. To dart right. 15 minutes on d w. In the eye of climate change. Africas moment of. Whats in store for Christmas Morning used to have for the future in the for the w comforting. Megacities the multimedia insights clencher. The use crime fighters are back that africas most successful radio drama series continues. This season the stories focus on hate speech mention the sustainable charcoal production the soul of a sows are Available Online and of course you can share and discuss on africas Facebook Page and other social media platforms. Crime fighters tune in now. Closely. Listen carefully. Theres simply. Too difficult. To listen discover the real live. Live subscribe to documentary on you tube. What secrets lie behind this was going to discover new adventures in the 360 degree. And explore fascinating World Heritage sites the. W and World Heritage 360 get the maps now. Live. Play. This is g w news live from berlin dealing with the worlds top conflicts World Leaders have wrapped up the Munich Security Conference with a new volley to crack down on anyone providing weapons to the warring parties in libya. Storm dennis washes across parts of britain who have issued flood warnings throughout the u. K. And are warning residents to