Travel is often built around the thrill of standing before something famous and thinking, so this is the real thing. But appearances can be wonderfully deceptive.
Some celebrated attractions are modern reconstructions protecting fragile originals, others are full-scale replicas built thousands of miles from their inspiration, and a few owe their fame to stories that unravel under historical scrutiny. That does not necessarily make them less interesting—in some cases, the imitation has become an attraction in its own right.
Keep reading to discover the landmarks where the story behind what you are seeing may be more surprising than the sight itself.
#1: Juliet’s Balcony Is a Tourist Tradition Built Long After Shakespeare — Verona, Italy
Visitors crowd into Verona’s Casa di Giulietta every day to photograph the balcony associated with Shakespeare’s tragic heroine. There is just one major complication: Juliet Capulet was a literary character, and there is no historical evidence that she lived in this house. The medieval building did belong to the Cappello family, whose name helped encourage an association with Shakespeare’s Capulets. Even more surprisingly, the famous balcony itself was added during twentieth-century restoration work rather than surviving from some documented medieval romance. Verona gradually transformed the property into a physical setting where visitors could participate in the mythology surrounding Romeo and Juliet. People now leave love notes, pose beneath the balcony, and visit it as though they were entering a location from the story.
