It is a typical Monday morning in a small office in the Italian city of Verona. Barbara sits at her desk and begins reading letters addressed to her long-dead boss. 'Dear Juliet, where have you been all these years? I hope your tomb is not too cold. I am an English teacher and we have just read your story. Everybody started crying at the end.'
Barbara is a professional dancer and a part-time secretary. She works for the world's oldest agony aunt, who died seven centuries ago. 'My job is to reply to all the letters to Juliet,' she explains. 'Verona stages an annual festival on her birthday, September 16. I danced at one and was asked if I wanted to help with Juliet's fan mail - she receives 5,000 letters every year. One of the first letters I opened was from a Polish girl who wanted to commit suicide. I wrote back telling her not to. I don't know if she took my advice or if she is alive or dead.
'It's a great responsibility writing on behalf of Juliet. The letters she gets are all about unrequited, forbidden and thwarted love. There are many people still suffering in the same way Juliet did with Romeo. They relate to her. She is a symbol of doomed but eternal love. That is why so many people write to her. Her story is universal - as relevant today as it was in the 14th century.'
Set in 1303 and first published in 1596, Shakespeare's tragic tale of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet was well-known in Italy. A cavalry captain, Luigi Da Porto, had already written a novel about the two feuding families. The first lonely-heart letter written to Juliet arrived in her home town in 1927. In 1937, shortly after the release of George Cukor's film version of the tale, another arrived. It was simply addressed, 'Juliet, Verona'.
The then-curator of Juliet's tomb, which is in a monastery in the city centre, replied. More letters came and the Club di Giuilietta (Juliet's Club) was formed. It now has seven secretaries, aged from 24 to 40, to deal with the mail. Their office is a converted garage. The only two male members are the office cat (named Romeo) and the club's founder, Giulio Tamassia, a retired manager of a confectionery factory.
'To be one of Juliet's secretaries you must be discreet and sensitive,' he says. 'It does not matter if Juliet was real or fictional. The thing that matters is everyone gets a reply. For many, she is real and her story is real. The Capulets did exist; they were called the Cappellos. You can see the family's emblematic cap carved in the archway and over the fireplace at Juliet's house, No 23 Via Cappello.
