fair verona: shakespeare set romeo and juliet in the city and it might still be a place for star-crossed lovers
Italy is a country ingrained in my upbringing. Not because the blood of the Romans flows through my veins, but because my dear old mother ended up in Rome at the impressionable age of 19, and she stayed for five years. This meant I grew up knowing as many Italian swear words as English ones and being mortified when mum would have one too many red wines, commandeer the microphone and start singing in Italian at a school fete. We were — and still are — the only house in our town to have our “Beware of the Dog” sign written in Italian; to ward off the more erudite potential burglar. Despite feeling so connected to the land, I’d never visited the country so when the opportunity came to go on a press trip with Quiiky Gay and Lesbian Tours, to Milan and Verona, I was quick to accept. Touching down safely at Milan Malpensa airport, my first experience of Italy was of a torrential downpour.