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places mentioned in the play. As Shakespeare based the story on real people and events, I wanted to experience it. So off we went. I got to see Juliet's balcony (yes, THE balcony), her tomb and even Romeo's family house. We also tried to find Romeo's tomb, but got lost and didn't make it before it closed for the day. All in all it was a tremendous trip and something I recommend to anyone. Verona is a beautiful city.

The absolute best way to experience Italy is to live there, something I was able to do during my university career. As I studied Italian literature, the school had an exchange program where I could study for a semester abroad, so I chose to go to Florence. In my opinion Florence is the most beautiful city in the world and some place everyone should at least visit.

There is the Ponte Vecchio, home to dozens of gold & jewellery stores, the Uffizi museum, home of Michelangelo's David, Piazza delle Signorie, one of the nicest piazzas in Italy, and all sorts of Etruscan ruins and mansions in the surrounding areas. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Florence, where I got to experience life as a Florentine, complete with foccaccia, chianti and the accent. Within three weeks of arriving, I had adopted the Florentine accent, and was speaking like a local. Much like the regional differences throughout North America in English, Italian has similar differences. The classic Florentine accent marker is the aspiration of any hard 'c' sound, similar to the 'j' sound in Spanish. So the name of the soft drink Coca-Cola sounds like 'hoca hola'. Very interesting to the ear, and much more fun to say.

I highly recommend everyone travel to Italy whether it's to study the language or its art, to go shopping for great fashion items, or (my personal favourite reason) to eat the food. Salute!

Learn more about this author, Julia Borgini.
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