A Writer at Juliet's Desk, Answering the World's Love Letters

Vogue

4 days ago

She lives in a thousand places in Verona—on tote bags, tea towels, in the glow of phone screens held high.
But her official residence, according to Google Maps, is Casa di Giulietta: Verona's approximation of where Romeo and Juliet's balcony scene could have taken place. Basically, it's a graffiti-covered courtyard where visitors take pictures with a bronze Juliet statue, cupping her right breast—for 'good luck,' they say, though it's hard to ignore the fact that the literary heroine is supposed to be 13. They also write her letters, dropping them in a red mailbox or smushing them to a wall with wads of chewed gum.
It's gross, really.
The gate to the Casa di Giulietta in Verona.
Still, something sincere slips through. The letters are real. People travel from all over the world to scribble down their romantic angst, seal it and send it into the void.
And not far away, in a lamp-lit office at the end of a cobblestone street, the void answers back. I went there in search of Juliet and found six of her instead—women who reply to every letter she receives.
If this sounds familiar, it's because these women—Juliet's secretaries—were immortalized in the 2010 film Letters to Juliet, which put a cinematic spin on their longstanding tradition. 15 years later, the club is still thriving. And one balmy afternoon in early summer, they let me join.