In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romeo lives in Mantua after his banishment from Verona.
The Prince sends Romeo to Mantua after Romeo kills Tybalt. Romeo first treats exile as worse than death because it separates him from Juliet, but Friar Laurence arranges for him to leave Verona and wait for better news. Mantua therefore becomes the setting for Romeo’s temporary refuge and for the fatal communication failure.
Friar Laurence plans to tell Romeo that Juliet will take a potion and appear dead. However, Friar John cannot deliver the letter because he is stopped during a quarantine connected with suspected illness. Romeo instead hears from Balthasar that Juliet has died and returns to Verona, obtaining poison from an apothecary on the way.
Mantua and Verona are distinct Italian cities in the play. Romeo’s exile does not send him to a vague foreign land; it relocates him to Mantua, whose distance makes the secret plan harder to manage.