Most of the action in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is set in Verona, Italy. The city is the home of the Montagues and Capulets, whose long-running feud drives the tragedy.
Verona was already associated with romance and medieval Italian storytelling before Shakespeare wrote the play. Shakespeare also moves the action briefly to Mantua, where Romeo goes after his banishment and later obtains the poison that he plans to use at Juliet’s tomb.
A common mix-up is to identify Mantua as the main setting because it is important in the final part of Romeo’s story. Mantua is instead a place of exile. The lovers meet, marry, and face the consequences of their families’ conflict in and around Verona.
Modern Verona promotes locations associated with the story, including Juliet’s supposed house, although Shakespeare’s characters are fictional and the play is not a documentary account of the city.