While visiting Verona, Italy, with her best friend, Jenny, a young woman named Ali Hall visits a wall where the heartbroken leave notes to Shakespeare's tragic heroine, Juliet Capulet. Finding one such letter from 1930, Ali decides to write to its n...
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New York, New York
June 1984
𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍-year-old Ali Hall and her best friend Jenny, placed their suitcases in the trunk of Ali's father's car, which was parked in front of their Park Avenue apartments as the two best friends were leaving for Verona, Italy for a 15 day vacation.
Ali is an aspiring writer, and she will be starting NYU's Journalism program in the fall, and Jenny will start the fashion design program. "This is so exciting." Jenny said as she and Ali got in the back seat of Mr. Hall's car, and the brunette buckled her seatbelt
"I know. I've heard Verona is beautiful this time of year." Ali smiled as she buckled her seatbelt
Ali's father drove down the busy streets of New York, towards JFK international. It's always a hassle driving around New York, but, Mr. Hall, who is a kind man, and a man of few words, has the patience for it. Once the girls were at their gate, he embraced them both tightly.
"Please be careful." Mr. Hall said, as he embraced his daughter and her best friend, who was honestly like a second daughter to him.
"We will be dad." Ali smiled as she returned her father's embrace
After the girls said goodbye to Ali's father, they made their way into the airport, where their bags and tickets were checked. Once they found their gate, it was just a waiting game before it was time to board. Once it was time to board, Ali and Jenny boarded together. Once the plane was boarded, and the doors were closed, the plane took off, taking Ali and Jenny with it.
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Verona, Italy
The plane landed in Verona at exactly 1:30 in the morning, but Ali wasn't complaining. She was in Verona, where Romeo first met Juliet. To say Ali is a sucker romance would be a true understatement. Her mother, Loretta died when she was very young, but she saw the love her parents had for one another, and she wanted that love for herself one day.
Ali and Jenny checked into their hotel room, and the first thing they did, was brush their teeth, and then they went to bed. The next morning, the bells rang early in Verona. Ali woke up, slowly opening her eyes, to the early morning sun peaking through the curtains. She saw Jenny was asleep in the other bed. Ali got out of her bed and walked to the window, and she was in complete awe of what she saw.
Verona was beautiful. There were old homes, and the Aidge River always ran its cycle. There was so much to explore, and she wanted to explore every inch of it, get lost in the beauty of the city.
"Good morning." Jenny said, her voice groggy from sleep.
"Good morning." Ali smiled, then looked out the window. "It's so beautiful."
Jenny put on her bathrobe and walked over by the window and stood beside Ali, and saw what the blonde saw: the beauty of the city, the Aidge River, it was beautiful.
After completing their morning routines, the girls grabbed their maps, and their backpacks, which held their cameras, and Ali's backpack had her journal in her's, as well as their sunglasses. They wouldn't be needing their Walkmans, so they left them in the room.
"Ready?" Jenny asked, placing her sunglasses her sunglasses a top of her head, and Ali smiled and nodded as he placed her sunglasses a top of her head.
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Throughout the day, Ali and Jenny used their maps to visit bridges, cafes, and tourist spots, as well as take plenty of memorable photos, then walked through several streets until 2 pm, when Jenny decided to head back to the hotel. "I'm going to head back to the hotel." the brunette said
Ali smiled. "Okay, I'll be back there soon."
Jenny bid her best friend goodbye as she walked in the direction of the hotel, while the blonde took out her map, and walked down the long and busy road looking for signs of Juliet's house, after a good 15-20 minutes of searching, she found a place, rather a courtyard, as busy as the streets of Verona.
Inside, something strange was happening. People left in tears. Most were teenage girls, some were young adult women. Another woman was asking where her Romeo was, just like the real Juliet. There were people who were taking pictures, and others were watching Juliet. The thing that caught Ali's attention the most, was the young women who were writing letters and notes, then leaving them on the stones on the wall in the courtyard of the house.
Ali watched a girl who was weeping, writing her letter. Once she put the letter on the wall, she began walking towards the exit. "Hey, are you okay?" the blonde kindly questioned, as she tried to gently grab the young woman's arm with one hand. The woman continued sobbing as she walked towards the gate. There were other women like her there, all suffering from the same heartache.
Ali decided she too, would sit on a bench. But instead of writing a letter to Juliet, she wrote in her notebook, trying to understand how Juliet helped these young women and even possibly young men that leave letters. She's a fictional character from one of Shakespeare's timeless plays, so she wasn't exactly real. How did she help them?
At 5 pm, the visitation was over, and Ali was still writing in her journal, when the bells of Verona resonated throughout the entire city. Just as the blonde placed her journal in her backpack, she noticed a woman in her mid-thirties come into the courtyard, collect each letter and placed them into a wicker basket. Ali waited for the woman to throw them away or just keep them, but instead, the woman left the courtyard.
Ali zipped up her backpack and carefully followed the woman out of the courtyard. Her curiosity was peaked. She followed the woman until she entered a small dark door on the side of a restaurant.
Ali followed the woman up a staircase that led directly to a large room, that was crammed with books. In the center of the room, was a table organized with blank papers, envelopes, and stamps. Four women were organizing and chatting in Italian. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door three times.
The women turned to look at her and an awkward silence filled the room. Ali swallowed hard, gripping the strap of her backpack. Little did she know, these four women were about to change her life forever.
