FIRST ACT
Scene one – Gloria Baker's Apartment
"Hurry, the movie is about to begin!" shouted Gloria Baker, huddling even more under hers warm checked plaid.
"Yeah" said again Neal, forced beside her in a corner of the old faded velvet sofa "Hurry up and serve the pop-corn!".
"But do you know how many times you've seen this movie?" Said Daphne, on the threshold of the living room.
Gloria had a glance to her red-haired friend.
"Mmmm ..." she said, "I don't know, maybe... three or four. I think...".
The boy laughed.
"Let's say ten times!"
Daphne looked up to the sky.
"Yes butI don't mind" said Gloria, "Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet is always a dream."
"You're too romantic ..." replied the friend, shaking his head.
"Which of us doesn't dream an overwhelming passion, an absolute love who win everything else?" He said, sighing.
"Come on!" concluded "Stories like this do not happen in reality."
"And above all they do not happen to us."
"Ssshhh!" rebuked Gloria.
"The movie has just began".
From the small screen in front of the sofa came a sweet old-fashioned melody, while the camera zoom in an elegant crenellated towers of the medieval Verona.
"Oh my goodness!" She breathed to her friend, tucking the door.
The Adige's loop gleamed in the dim light like the coils of a golden snake, from the fountains of the square raise a light mist.
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Gloria sighed, hugging the pillow. Neal smiled.
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The ringing of the phone imperious ripping both groaned.
"Don't answer!" Hissed the boy.
"But if it's important?" Said Gloria.
"And if it was not?".
But she was already up.
"Hello?" she said flatly.
When she heard the voice on the other side of the phone, however, perked up.
"No, no, Matt, you don't bother me at all!" She exclaimed happily.
Neal snorted, as she was signaling to turn down the TV volume.
"Really?" she said, attentively.
Daphne appeared again in the doorway.
"Who is it?" He asked.
Hers red-head friend mimed with his lips the words "Prince Charming".
"Oh, no," she whispered, "again! But she hadn't closed with that nutcase and his absurd idea to save the world? ".
The young man opened his arms, assuming an desperate expression .
"And when?" Asked Gloria, who didn't deem them of a glance.
"Say no!" Whispered hers friends in unison.
"Don't accept!".
But Gloria listened a moment longer and then, without hesitation, said: "Ok, I'm caming."
Daphne winced, Neal slumped on the couch.
Gloria grabbed the remote control and turned off the television.
Her friend jumped up.
"But..." She winks. "I must go".
"Oh no, not him again!" Daphne said with exaggerated despair "So you know that as usual he didn't deem you of a glance and you'll come back at home even sad and disappointed than before!".
"I'm sure..." Neal interjected, with a mischievous smile, "...that I would have more chance of you with that guy!".
"Stop saying nonsense!" Now Gloria was starting to get nervous.
"I've told you a thousand times: there is nothing between us ..."
"That's the problem," Daphne interrupted.
"We are friends. We're just friends".
"But we are talking about a race, only a race in Monza. Pratically the dream of all the drivers of Formula One"she continued.
She walk toward the door of room.
"Anyway I have to pack my bag: we leave tonight."
"Oh, I almost forgot ..."
She stopped in the doorway.
"... We will stay in Verona" she added dreamily, before disappearing.
The two friends reciprocally give an astonished glance.
"And the day after tomorrow is Valentine's Day!" Daphne chuckled.
Scene two – Verona, Juliet Capulet's Apartment
"Then..." said Brad Turner slipping his sunglasses for a while "This is the famous home of Juliet Capulet?".
Alex Sector nodded, without moving his eyes from the tour guide who was reading.
Scott pointed at the family crest on the keystone of the archway.
"Look this!" he said smiling "that's a hat!".
"T-then..." mumbled T-Bob stretching mechanical arms "here lived the f-family Ca-Ca-Cappelletti and not Capulets!".
"In fact" gloss the zoologist fixing the massive stone building "here says that the exact name of the ancient Veronese family known since the time of Dante Alighieri is just Cappelletti ..."
"Well done, T-Bob!" Dusty Hayes settled down the android a strong pat on the back, he almost knocked him sprawling on the ground.
Gloria, open wide her eyes astonished, crossed the archway and walked into the courtyard crowded of tourists intent on snooping in various souvenir shops.
Open-mouthed, her eyes lingered on at the walls entirely covered of graffiti and cards, left by visitors as she suffered the charm of that place, how many dreams, desires, hopes, disappointments were entrusted to those messages!
All people - I considered - just as she wanted to find love, true love. Or keep it forever.
Alex however nose wrinkled, critically.
"Eventually," he said, "this is just an attraction for tourists rebuilt a few decades ago with imaginative restorations, as to recreate an ancient medieval scene ...".
Dusty shrugged, Brad had meanwhile got to chat with two Italian girls who had asked him for an autograph.
"Well," cried at that point Scott "in Piazza delle Erbe I had seen a place made of ice cream that seems fantastic!".
"I-I cream ?!" echoed an enthusiastic T-Bob.
The group then walked to the exit, while Gloria was left behind.
"You want to stay a little 'here?" He teased the Texan "Hidden somewhere maybe there is still oRomeoRomeowhereforeartthouRomeo?".
"Idiot!" She said, giving him a pat on the head.
"Let's go!" she added, "I'll join you in few minutes".
He jests at scars that never felt a wound. She couldn't help thinking.
Left alone, the girl looked around carefully; she dwelt on the marble balcony, that according to the tragedy, was the center of one of the most romantic scenes of the story.
In his heart she knew that it was only the result of a clever assemblage of marble remains, but she couldn't forbid to her imagination top stick out the balcony, wondering if ever a man should compared her to his Sun, wondering if a man can love so much to consider her brightest than the moon.
She sighed wistfully.
She turned back and covered the few steps that separated her from the golden statue of Juliet.
She stared the statue silently, thoughtful, and then, after watched out to make sure that her friends were gone, rose up on tiptoe and reached out until she touch the left breast of the statue.
She expected to feel the cold metal but, due her imagination overexcited, she seemed to touch something smooth, soft and warm.
While a tremor as the electricity passed through her from head to foot, she feel under the fingertips a pulsing and distant light, almost imperceptible.
Her heart began beating faster, while the breathing became wheezy.
The sight is tarnished and a voice without sound played at his ear "Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes"
And as suddenly as it begun, all of a sudden it was over and Gloria lowered his arm, breathing deeply.
Blinked a couple of times to regain control and leaned with her back to the wall.
She looked around, bewildered because none of those present seemed to have noticed something odd.
She swallowed and looked vacantly at the clock.
The six.
Matt went to Milan for business and he wouldn't be back before nightfall; During the long plane ride, Matt always chatted with her son or discussed on the phone the details of the race forecasted the day after.
Pratically, the most dire predictions of his housemates seemed destined to become true. Had to get over it right: Matt wasn't interested in her and I would never be.
Sighed again, melancholy.
Suddenly a deep voice behind made her wince.
"As it's so long inside your hours, baby?".
The M.A.S.K. agent spun around.
"Not worth owning for me the only thing that I would do short" answered, without thinking.
That strange words were releases unexpectedly, as if to say it had been another person inside her, but with her voice.
The speaker was an old woman, not very high, wrapped in a bizarre cloak colorful.
The skin of a warm amber tones, contrasted with the bright white of the long braid that touched her life.
She should be a gypsy, or something.
She lifted her dark, shining eyes like drops of molten metal.
"Are you in love?".
Gloria shook her head.
"No. Yes. I do not know"She replied.
It was not like she give rope to strangers and even more odd was talking about things like that with a weird old lady just met.
"If you were in love, baby, you'd know," the woman said softly.
Her eyes penetrated, the soothing voice seemed to speak directly to her heart.
"Trust me."
"Ah, because love, which is so beautiful to the eye, it must be demonstrated so tyrannical and cruel to the test?".
Gloria thought she responded that way, with words that did not even know, but perhaps it was only her imagination. "Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!"
"Can I read your hand?" She asked suddenly.
She shook her head.
"No, no thank you. I don't believe about these things ".
The gypsy smiled.
"So much better, so if I make mistakes you can't be disappointed."
"Come on ..." he added after a second.
Gloria smiled shyly.
She looked around again: his friends were away and the courtyard was of a completely emptied tract.
Obeying a sudden impulse, she'd never been able to explain, she nodded.
"The left, please," she whispered, "the heart's hand."
The girl held out her hand, which the other took it in his own.
Gloria felt that his skin was warm and incredibly smooth.
"Oh, then ..."
The old half-closed his eyes and pursed his lips, concentrated.
Gloria stared at her, much more anxious than he ever thought possible.
"Oh my Good!" exclaimed the Gypsy, running her nimble fingers along the lines of the palm.
The American stared at her questioningly, but dared not stop.
"Excellent!" grinned delighted the woman.
"I see a great love in your life."
The other's eyes widened, incredulous.
"Really?" said, with a touch of irony.
The Gypsy nodded, serious serious.
"A great love" repeated, without lifting his eyes "A tall, athletic ... his hair have the color of riped corn ears.
Gloria bit his lips, while his heart had a gasp.
"He runs fast."
The old woman lifted his gaze and stared at her with amazed air.
"It's just like ... he could fly ...".
"But he hides a secret".
Gloria bent her head to the side, drinking the Gypsy words one after another.
"What's your name?" she asked.
The other hesitated.
"It's not clear, I can't understand ..."
The girl looked at her with pleading air.
"Mmmm ... Yes, there is an" M "in its name. It's called M ... "
"Hey, Glory glory!".
The american jerked.
From below the entrance arch Dusty called loudly.
Evidently the interest for Italian ice cream had been satisfied and they were going away to return to the hotel.
"Y-Yes. I'm coming, "she replied, turning.
On her face appeared a frown of disappointment, because when I turned back, the Gypsy was gone.
Vanished into thin air without leaving a trace.
As evaporated.
Note&credits: actually existed two families of credits & name Montagues and Capulets (the exact name though is Cappelletti): of Callis you have knowledge of their presence until the years of permanence of Dante in Verona, Juliet's House, close to piazza Erbe, where their presence is testified by the crest of the hat on the keystone of the Arch of the entrance to the courtyard of the House.
The current appearance of Juliet's House in Verona was modelled between 1937-1940 took me through a series of imaginative restorations to recreate the ancient medieval scenography, inspired by an American movie of 1936, in turn inspired by the famous 19th-century painting of Hayez "L'ultimo bacio dato a Giulietta da Romeo".
Balcony (before there was the railing of a Council House) arose from the assemblage of marble remains of the 14th century, which, again in 1920, lay at the Castelvecchio Museum like stones from re-use, according to the architectural fashion of the time. Source: wikipedia.
Thanks to my husband Paolo for translation. Please, if you notice errors let us know. :)