Verona: Dream City of Love & Passion for Shakespeare - Essay Sample

Introduction

Verona is a city built along the Adige River in Veneto, Italy. Verona bares a large portion of Italian history, especially when it comes to the culture of artistic masterpieces. Although William Shakespeare did not name Verona as his dream city of love, many people think that Verona is the dream city of love and passion for Shakespeare. He made frequent visits to Verona and even set most of his literary works around Verona; that is, Venice, which stands just an hour from Verona (Loughnane, 21). The artistic masterpieces in Verona were loved by many people from within Italy and abroad, and till today, Verona remains one of the cities in Italy which are most visited by tourists from every corner of the world. The history of Italy; its culture and the socio-political issues revolve around Verona. This paper, therefore, will focus on Verona and how it has helped shape the history of Italy as a country.

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Verona, Italy's identity, and history were generated on the principles of Shakespeare, Verona Arena, and its artistic masterpieces.

The city of Verona is full of artwork, and for that reason, it became the ideal place for William Shakespeare to set his story of Romeo and Juliet. The arts and galleries that remain up to date play an essential role in the tourism industry in Italy. The FaMa Gallery is one of the techniques found in Verona. The gallery was named after a director known as Mach Facchini and served as a link that connects all the artworks in Verona and the public within and outside Italy. The FaMa Gallery plays a significant role in bringing up artists in Italy, especially when an exhibition basement was opened in 2011. The basement hosts one artist who is a resident of Verona to utilize the whole space annually while doing some constructive work of art to improve their skills in the art platform.

William Shakespeare used the arts in Verona to depict some of the virtues that existed in Italy during that time. For example, he wanted to show people some cultures that had not been realized in Italy. Shakespeare set the play Much Ado About Nothing in Messina, and the contents of the story show the possibility of having a festival that would be observed every year in the form of a Carnival. In that play, he uses the masks and the revels to show that the festival would aim to bring people together while having fun. The masked ball in Act 2 means that there will be concealment of faces to give room for mistaking identities (Loughnane, 21). Although most of the Elizabethan audience did not know much about Sicily, what mattered much for Shakespeare was that the whole setting was in an Italian location.

Furthermore, William Shakespeare, through his plays, depicted Italy as a land of learning and cultivation of cultures. By the use of one of his early comic games; The Taming of the Shrew, Christopher Sly; a character goes to sleep in England. In the morning, he wakes up to listen to a play set in the Italian language. The meaning of the scene shows that Italy will be a welcoming country that will not deny anybody a chance to learn about their cultures (Wiel, 1907). When the scene ended, another one started where Shakespeare ultimately uses Italian settings as he reaches Padua from Pisa. The pure Italian settings that he uses gives a foresight that Italy will always remain steadfast as it cultivates its culture. Indeed until date, Italy has remained one of the world countries with the best traditional and cultural scenes that attract tourists.

The poetic works of William Shakespeare are vital in the shaping of Italian cities. He accorded some of them with different responsibilities, and they have remained with the same obligations even though modifications have occurred. Verona was branded as the city of love and passion. The town looked more like the chosen city for Shakespeare, and that is why he associated it with Romeo and Juliet as outline by Edwards, (2016). The second city was Padua, which had a university during that time. Padua was then associated with learning and thus branded as the nursery of arts. The two cities still retain the most productive cultural values of Italy. Verona, for example, has the arena which was built in the first century and remains to host several cultural activities while Padua is more of a store to cultural monuments that are dated back to the origin of Italy. The two cities play an essential role in the improvement of tourism in Italy.

Verona, as a city in Italy, has several inspirational pictures that make it one of the most visited areas in Italy. Most of the photographs were created in the first century and remain till today for the remembrance of the city. The inspirational pictures portray the identity of the town as they perform different roles. They include Galleria dello Scudo, which was created in the first half of the 20th century. Others include the Boxart Gallery, Studio la Citta, La Giardina, and Malepere, among others Wang (2017). Apart from the cultural galleries that make the city known, there also exists one museum that everybody who visits the city must visit. The museum is called the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto and holds up to 15, 000 collections of Italian artworks. All the artworks in the museum and the cultural galleries play essential roles in the identification of Verona.

William Shakespeare wrote many books in the form of plays. He fascinatingly arranged the contents but may not have given the exact meanings of the matches. Some of his books were depicting the real life of the Italian in the future. Nonetheless, some of his books helped in ultimately shaping some Italian cities. For example, he compared Verona to the love between Romeo and Juliet. In the real sense, the comparison should mean that the residents of Verona should be kind and loving to one another and even to those who visit them as strangers.

Another example is Padua, which he compared to a nursery of arts. His main reason for such a comparison was, first, the presence of a university that would be used to mold people into the best in their respective professions. The second reason is that Padua had stored the cultural galleries and would be used as a reference whenever Italians wanted to look back to their past. Their artistic culture was to be taught to different generations to ensure that the learning doesn't lose its value; neither does it disappear. The books also keep a rich history of Italian cultures and especially arts and the origin of her cities.

Annotated Bibliography

Edwards, C. (2016, April 22). Shakespeare and Italy: A literary love affair. Retrieved from https://www.thelocal.it/20160422/shakespeare-and-italy-italian-bard-400-anniversary-death-verona-venice-rome-caesar-romeo-juliet-padua-mantua-taming-shrew-gentlemen-merchant-venice

Many people, even in Italy doubted Shakespeare as being an Italian. However, very many other people wrote books to help make people understand that he was born and grew up in Italy before he migrated to London. While in Italy he tried to shape the face of the cities by comparing different cities to some virtues that they had to follow.

LOUGHNANE, R. (2017). Shakespeare in the 1580s. Shakespeare Studies (0582-9399), 45, 121. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.ccis.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=125366273&scope=site.

The document gives a plain truth on the fact that William Shakespeare was in itally at this time. He is the pioneer of plays that describe artwork and give cities identities.

Sawyer, J. (2014, July 1). Verona's Top Contemporary Art Galleries You Should Visit. Retrieved from https://theculturetrip.com/europe/italy/articles/verona-s-top-contemporary-art-galleries-you-should-visit/.

Verona as a city is surrounded by various cultural galleries which gives its identity. The galleires include but not limited to Boxart Gallery, Studio la Citta, La Giardina, and Malepere. It also has a museum, which combines together with the galleries to provide its identity.

Wang, I. (2017, August 3). A Brief History of the Verona Arena. Retrieved from https://theculturetrip.com/europe/italy/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-verona-arena/.

The arena in the city of Verona was built in 1st century and has stayed for all these years. Many people know Verona because of the cultural events taking place in the arena. The arena brings people together to appreciate their cultures.

Wiel, A. (1907). The story of Verona / by Alethea Wiel; illustrated by Nelly Erichsen and Helen M. James. London: J.M. Dent.

The City of Verona is built along the Adige River in Veneto, Italy. Its strategic placement is ideal for its expansion. The city has grown due to the rich cultural galleries which act as a hub for tourist attraction.