September in Verona, Italy is when the town celebrates Juliet Capulet’s birthday. Hundreds of years ago, Shakespeare made Verona famous with his play, Romeo and Juliet that was based on the life of two real young lovers who both died for each other and lived in Verona in 1303.

People go to Verona to gaze at the “Wall of Letters” written by romantics all around the world. By the 1900’s, Verona was receiving so many letters for Juliet that they created an office…The Juliet Club.

Playwright and poet, William Shakespeare was an expert on the subject of love and romance. Here are five favorite quotes from Romeo and Juliet:

Don’t waste your love on somebody, who doesn’t value it.

For never was a story of more woe that this of Juliet and her Romeo.

When he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun.

My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.

Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

The Juliet & Romeo is a beautiful and delicious cocktail. You don’t have to be a lover of gin to enjoy it but being a romantic is essential… kissed with rose water it will warm your heart. It’s the kind of cocktail that I imagine Hemingway would have sipped on a September afternoon in Paris.

Juliet & Romeo

2 oz gin (Beefeater)

3/4 oz fresh lime juice

3/4 oz simple syrup

3 drops rose water

3 drops Angostura bitters

3 slices cucumber

3 sprigs mint

1 pinch salt

Muddle cucumber, mint and pinch of salt. Add rest of ingredients. Let sit for a moment. Shake with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with 1 floating mint leaf and additional rose water drops.

Cin cin and buon compleanno, Juliet! xx