Verona Opera Festival and the House of Juliet

June 19th marks the beginning of the famous Verona Opera Festival. For 87 years, the city of Verona has been hosting some of the world's most famous operas in an ancient Roman arena. On the calendar this year are Carmen, Aida, Tosca and a special tribute to the famous tenor, Placido Domingo. Verona, the birthplace of the poet Catullus and the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, is the perfect venue for these spectacular shows. You may be so inspired that you'll want to run off and get married in the House of Juliet, which will soon be open for public marriages!

"Counting the Stars" by Helen Dunmore

Gaius Valerius Catullus is probably ancient Rome's best known love poet (although some might award that title to Ovid). His poems about his on-again, off-again relationship with an older Roman noblewoman have inspired and frustrated devotees of Latin poetry for centuries. In fact, Catullus can be credited with being the first poet to encapsulate the vexaciousness of relationships. His words "odi et amo" (I love you and I hate you) perfectly sum up the feelings of countless lovers through history. The British writer Helen Dunmore has written a novel about Catullus' greatest love affair titled Counting the Stars. Although reviewers hint that the plot may be a bit slow, Dunsmore's writing style turns the tale into a smoldering study of human emotion. The Modern Traveler will certainly be picking up a copy as soon as it is available stateside.