Pictures from Juliet. Charles Dickens in Verona in 1844

Following the restoration of part of the spaces at Casa di Giulietta, the Civic Museums of Verona are displaying, starting June 19, impressions, moods, and emotions evoked by the view of the streets, squares, and monuments of Verona by the famous English writer Charles Dickens.

In November 1844, the renowned Victorian writer and journalist describes in his travel diary Pictures from Italy, published in London in 1846, the city of Verona, marking a striking Shakespearean homage.

In an unceasing dialogue between images and text, eleven frames guide visitors on a discovery of Dickens's Veronese itinerary from 1844, complemented by the visual commentary of over twenty engravings, photographs, and postcards from the museum collections, datable between the early nineteenth century and the early twentieth century.

The “beautiful Verona” - as referred to multiple times in the text - with its ancient buildings and enchanting landscape on the horizon, unfolds before the writer, with Piazza Bra and the imposing structure of the Arena, with the streets and palaces, leading to an evening representation still dedicated to Romeo and Juliet, “a drama always popular in Verona”; and again, with visits to antiquities, galleries, and churches, to “old cross alleys where the cries of the Montagues and Capulets echoed”.

The exhibition is curated by Fausta Piccoli with the collaboration of Andrea Tenca and Stefano Baldini.