Italy goes Bard crazy

(ANSA) - Rome, July 4 - Italy's annual summer love affair with William Shakespeare is heating up this year with an exhibition, four new books and a raft of open-air plays across the country celebrating the Bard's passion for the peninsula. From Romeo and Juliet's Verona, Othello's Venice and Much Ado About Nothing's Messina, Shakespeare set almost a third of his plays in the country - even though most critics believe he never set foot outside England. The Shakespeare season is already under way in Rome with an exhibition that runs until September 28 exploring the five plays he set in the Italian capital: Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus, Cymbeline, Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra. Photos, videos and audio clips from famous theatre and film productions from the 1950s to the modern day are on show in 'Shakespeare in Rome' at... [read full story]